Nick Gollatz is greeted by his Ascent Athlete teammates after hitting his second HR of the game.
By Rich Bevensee
A wealth of weapons. That’s what the Ascent Athlete Dust Devils 12U crew has, and by the sixth inning their performance was enough to make Ocean Surge Elite coach Eric Alvarez give one of those “What can you do?” shrugs.
Four hard-throwing Devils pitchers combined on a six-hitter, Nick Gollatz and Jack Brown homered and Ascent Athlete, a talented crew from Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania, won its its first pool play game of the weekend, a 6-2 decision over Ocean Surge Elite in the 12U April Fool’s Tournament on Friday evening at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
Gollatz blasted two homers, a line drive over the left field fence in the first inning and a towering, 240-foot bomb over the scoreboard in left center in the sixth. He has three homers this spring after clicking for nine all of last season.
“I was feeling it today,” Gollatz said. “I thought it was going to be a great weekend for me and our team. My teammates were helping me out, cheering me on. When I hit like that I feel like I’m on top of the world.”
“Nick’s always been that way,” Ascent coach Stephen Richter said. “Him at the top of the lineup, setting the tone, he’s pretty good.”
The Dust Devils will continue Pool A play with a doubleheader Saturday, against Brooklyn Pitbulls 12U Prime and Morris County Cubs 12U White. The winner of the four-team A and B pools meet in the finals on Sunday at 6:25 p.m.
Ocean Surge Elite, from Ocean Township, N.J., will face Morris County Cubs 12U White and the Brooklyn Pitbulls on Saturday.
Gollatz started the game behind the plate and made a fine play on a tapper in front of the plate by leaping into fair territory and throwing a laser to first. He also pitched the final two innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk and struck out three while reaching 71 mph on the radar.
Jack Figliolino races to first base for Ocean Surge Elite 12U.
Gollatz was the fourth Ascent pitcher to keep the Surge in check Friday. Brice Moore pitched an inning, Zyaire Wise threw two and Kolin Klinger tossed one before handing off to Gollatz. Together they limited the Surge to a pair of runs on just six hits while striking out 10 and allowing just one walk.
Richter explained why he went with four pitchers in the tournament opener.
“It’s early in the season and we’re keeping pitch counts lower while we’re waiting for guys’ arms to get in better shape,” Richter said. “We’ve got a long weekend ahead so why not get a bunch of guys some work?
“I saw a lot of pitching with confidence, competitiveness, consistency, and when there were guys on base they kept rolling.”
The Devils scored in five of six innings to keep the Surge at bay.
Gollatz didn’t waste any time putting the Dust Devils’ offensive mantle on his back, homering on a 1-1 pitch to lead off the game.
In the top of the second Hudson Van Note reached on a walk and eventually scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead. In the fourth Bo Wisniewski gave Ascent a 3-0 cushion when he roped an RBI double into the right-center field gap.
The Surge broke up the shutout in the bottom of the fourth when Jonathan Kim, pinch running for Jack Figliolino who singled, scored on an infield error.
The Devils answered that challenge quickly, scoring again in the fifth when Moore slipped an RBI single through the left side for a 4-1 gap.
In the sixth, Brown cracked an opposite-field, solo shot to right, and Gollatz sent his second solo missile of the game over the scoreboard for a 6-1 lead.
The Surge added one more run in its last at bat when Jagger Junio walked, Austin Sweeney singled and Carter Rosell knocked in Junio with an RBI groundout.
Rosell posted the defensive play of the game in the bottom of the fifth when he made a running snag of a Josh Edwards liner in right field and smoothly threw to first base to double up Moore, who had every reason to believe Edwards’ shot was headed for the fence.
For the Surge, Figliolino singled twice and threw out a runner at third from his post behind the plate. Leadoff hitter Aiden Patterson also singled twice. Sweeney pitched the first 4⅓ innings and Drew Grasso handled the final 1⅔ innings.