Bakes Brewers 13U scored 51 runs in four games and captured the Spring Invitational championship.
By Rich Bevensee
Chris Cueter served as the perfect example of what Bakes Brewers 13U coach Jason Ballard wanted to accomplish by taking his team south to train during the winter.
After winter trips to Florida’s Space Coast and to Houston, Ballard’s boys came back to New Jersey with that warm weather approach still fresh in their minds.
Cueter batted .667 and the Brewers scored 51 runs in four games, an impressive effort which was capped when they stifled EEP Bandits Gray, 7-4, in the championship game to earn the Spring Invitational 13U Gold bracket title on a chilly and windy Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
Ballard and his players said they were not surprised at all to have won a tournament title in their first event up north, where temperatures hovered in the upper 30s at the start of the final.
“Absolutely. We played down in Florida and in Houston to do some spring training, and I could see us coming up here and doing big things,” Ballard said. “They were able to come out and show some of that experience just from being down there in that warm weather.”
“I don’t find anything surprising about it,” said winning pitcher Max Sicilia, who allowed two runs over four innings. “We’re all very good baseball players.”
Cueter, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, batted like he was playing in more comfortable conditions, going 6-for-9 for the weekend with a homer, two doubles and six RBI.
In pool play, Cueter hit a homer in the team’s first game and went 3-for-3 with a double in his second.
“He smashed the baseball all weekend,” Ballard said. “He battled, battled, battled, put the ball in play and got a lot of big hits.”
Cueter said the sky’s the limit for his potential after earning an MVP in his first weekend of the spring.
“I’ve been training with my dad and lifting a ton,” Cueter said. “I went very hard this winter. Got a lot of swings in, tons of swings. Worked on keeping my hands in – that was a big one – keeping my front foot in and using my back leg.”
The coach’s son, Tyler Ballard, had an RBI single in the first inning and walked with the bases loaded in the second to help the Brewers build a 7-0 lead.
Brewers cleanup hitter Gavin Hobbs also drove in two runs. He had a sacrifice fly in the first, and posted the loudest hit of the game in the second when capped the Brewers’ five-run rally with a two-run double.
Sicilia pitched two scoreless innings before the Bandits put two runs on the board in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles by Damian Ramirez and Lou Giancola.
Sicilia, battling the cold weather to find a grip on the ball while managing his fastball, curveball and changeup, allowed two runs on three hits and four walks and he struck out six over his four innings of work.
Chris Cueter batted .667 and drove in six runs to earn MVP honors for the 13U Bakes Brewers.
“It’s definitely a mindset thing,” Sicilia said. “You have to block out everything and think that it’s warm, not cold.”
“Max was very poised,” Ballard said. “He commanded the mound, pitched in some tough conditions and threw strikes, and that’s the most important thing.”
Tyler Baker pitched two innings in relief for the Brewers and allowed two runs on one hit and two walks with two strikeouts.
Trailing by five runs, the Bandits tried to build some drama in the sixth and final inning, loading the bases with no out as Giancola and Antonio Dixon walked and Camden Knapp singled.
Nick Ivanciu and Vincent Mangiafridda each drove in a run with back-to-back sacrifice flies. With a runner on first and the potential tying run in the on-deck circle, Baker got a strikeout to end the threat.
After going 2-0 in pool play, the Brewers pounded Crush Cooperstown Bat, 15-1, in the semifinals. The Bandits went 2-1 in pool play and advanced through the semifinals after beating top-seeded Dragons Elite NY Black, 11-3.