By Sean Reilly
Patrick Dalien came from Long Island to Diamond Nation over the weekend in the midst of a busy spring season, since he plays both for the Beast Black 13U as well as the junior varsity team at Half Hollow Hills East High School.
Eighth graders can play high school ball in New York, and he’s made the most of that opportunity. But traveling to ‘The Nation’ to play with Beast Black at the 13U Spring Fever also afforded an additional chance to enhance his game.
The results were clear —- he helped his team go unbeaten and capture the championship with a 12-6 win over the Diamond Jacks White 13U in the final.
Dalien also earned tournament MVP honors after hitting a run-scoring double in addition to supplying two RBI groundouts in the championship game. That big effort followed his two-run double with one out in the bottom of the seventh that delivered a 6-5 win over the Diamond Jacks Super 13U in the semifinals.
The championship came in the team’s second tournament of the season. The first had brought disappointing results.
“I felt like all the work I had been doing paid off,” he said of his performance. “I was finally staying back on pitches that I needed to stay back on. I only had one hit in the last tournament because I’ve also been playing school ball. Hitting with these bats here and not the drop-5 (in high school) really helped.”
In the championship matchup, Beast Black was extremely opportunistic. There were not only bunt singles (both by No. 10 batter Sammy Tom), but three RBI groundouts and three sacrifice flies. That’s a lot of runs from simply putting the ball in play, especially with a championship on the line.
“We did what we had to get runs in,” Dalien said.
The first instance of that occurred in the bottom of the first. Ryan Land led off with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and then scored when Dalien, the No. 2 batter, grounded to short.
The Diamond Jacks White, who had a very impressive 4-1 weekend, took a 2-1 lead in the second after Graham Drennan reached on error and Lud Ashley walked before both scored on Kyle Karlbon’s one-out single to center.
Beast Black added two more runs on outs to regain the lead in the bottom of the inning. Xavier Davis led off with a walk and Tyler D’Amico was safe on an error. Luke Martin flew out to center to score Davis, and Gavin Paterniani grounded out to shortstop to deliver D’Amico.
The Diamond Jacks regained the lead in the top of the third, with Brody Garner hitting a two-run single and Declan Lynch supplying a RBI ground out to second that forged a 5-3 margin.
Beast Black, once again, rallied in the bottom of the inning, this time with four runs that also seized control of the game.
Davis hit a one-out sacrifice fly to right field, and the next-batter, D’Amico, hit a first-pitch RBI single to center for a 5-5 tie. Martin and Paterniani both followed with run-scoring singles.
The Diamond Jacks got within 7-6 in the fourth, after Ashley led off with a single and later scored on a wild pitch.
In the bottom of inning, Tom led off for Beast Black with his second bunt single on the third base side. He scored on three wild pitches with Land at the plate. Land walked, stole two bases, and scored on Dalien’s ground out to second.
Beast Black scored its final runs in the fifth, getting a sacrifice fly from Land, an RBI double from Damien and a run-scoring single by Michael Clark when the 1:50 play clock expired.
“Last year, we were pretty much in it at every tournament,” Dalien said. “We just needed another wake-up call. Now I know that we’re good again.”