Benny Maldonado approaches the plate after the first of his two solo home runs for Delmarva Aces.
By Sean Reilly
Mateo Tressler had a busy day on Friday at Diamond Nation, and enjoyed every bit of it.
Tressler pitched two hitless innings, striking out four without a walk, to close out a 9-4 victory for his Delmarva Aces 12U East team over the FB Braves 12U White in its opening game at the 12U Easter Extravaganza in Flemington.
At the plate, he walked, was hit by a pitch, and added a sacrifice fly.
After throwing 26 pitches in that relief stint, Tressler was also the mound starter in the second game of the day, opposite the NY Gothams Ghost 12U. He threw three more scoreless innings, helped by excellent defensive support which kept his pitch count to 44, as the Aces won, 7-0, to close out an opening day sweep at ‘The Nation.’
The Aces, from Selbyville, Del., are now 13-2 on the season.
“It felt really good out there,” Tressler said. “It’s great to start 2-0 and now we can come back with confidence tomorrow.”

Mateo Tressler of Delmarva rounds third before scoring on ball hit by Brice Davis.
In the opening game, the Aces fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first before going ahead for good after scoring four times in the bottom of the frame. Landon Bounds singled in the go-ahead run before Tressler followed with a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 advantage.
In the second game, Tressler allowed a leadoff single to the Ghosts’ Miles Zaret, but he was thrown out stealing on a great throw from Aces catcher Colin Clingan.
Steven Fernandez of the Gothams then rocked a ball off the fence with two out, but was thrown out trying for a double by Aces’ left fielder Luke Holder.
“Our defense was really good,” Tressler said. “And it helped me a lot because if they didn’t do that, I would have had more pitches and wouldn’t last as long in the game,”
The three Aces batters in the top of the first all flew out to Gothams center fielder Jax Ehrenkranz.
But in the second inning, Benny Maldonado led off for the Aces with a home run over the fence in right center.
“I got a good barrel on the baseball,” he said. “It was a fastball low, and I like it there.”
The Aces added four runs in the second inning, and it began with Tressler leading off with a double to center. After a pop out to shortstop, Holder hit a fly ball that dropped in shallow left field for a single that kept Tressler at second.
Brice Davis was next, and his fly ball was misplayed for an error that scored Tressler and moved Davis to third.
With the top of the order now up, Ryan Otwell hit an RBI single to third base for a 3-0 lead. Ben Green was now the batter with runners on first and third. Otwell took second base before Green hit a run-scoring ground out to third.
Otwell moved to third on that play, and scored on a swinging bunt single down the third base line from Eason Willis.
The Aces extended the lead to 6-0 in fourth, with Evan Donaway hitting a bases-empty home run to right field with one out.

Nin Woo Kim had four hits, including a mammoth grand slam in the opener, for NY Gothams.
Maldonado added his second home run, a solo shot to right field, with two-out in the sixth. It gave him the first two-homer game of his career.
“That one was an outside fastball and I took it that way,” he said.
The Aces are in good pitching shape for Saturday’s playoffs. Tressler allowed two hits over his three innings. Willis pitched the fourth inning and Green threw the final two frames.
The Ghosts ended with 17 batted balls, but the Aces committed no errors.
The Ghosts began their day with a 13-6 win over Double Major Black 12U, in which a nine-run top of the sixth erased a 6-4 deficit.
The huge rally included both a leadoff double and two-out grand slam from Min Woo Kim that closed out the scoring. The home run traveled beyond the scoreboard in right-center on Field 2, and over the top of the adjacent batting cage. He went 3-for-4 with five RBI in that game, and was 1-for-1 with a walk in the nightcap.