By Sean Reilly
The Fall baseball season is a bit different than much of what happens earlier in the year.
Teams and players obviously want to win games, but skill development, situational learning and overall improvement are more important in September and October than earlier in the year. It’s all an extension of players aging up a year in competition levl beginning around Labor Day.
A case in point is the Diamond Jacks Super 15U, a team that’s had significant success growing up together, including this past summer as a 14U side.
This fall, with development in mind, the DJacks Super 15U is mostly playing up a level in 16U events. They’ve lost and tied a few games as a result, but they’ve also been getting better.
That was apparent over the weekend at Diamond Nation, when the DJacks bested 11 other teams to capture the championship of the 16U Grand Slam, Powered By Kessler Rehab.
The capper was a 10-9 victory over Baseball U Pa National on Sunday afternoon.
The DJacks went 4-0-1 on the weekend, with a 25-13 run differential. In the final, they scored five times in the top of the first inning, fell behind later in the game, and rallied to win.
“We’ve been playing up for the last two or three tournaments,” said Henry Kusant, who went 2-for-3 with four RBI in the title contest. “We haven’t won many games, so this is definitely big. It feels good. The other guys are a little bigger and stronger, but we played as a team, and pitched good and hit the ball.”
The DJacks also won three times on Sunday, beginning with a 6-1 triumph over Baseball U Pa Philly 16U, to clinch a first-place pool finish, highlighted by a three-run home run from Ryan Jezorwski and a five-inning pitching stint from Kusant.
In the semifinals, Liam Freyre allowed one hit over five innings, Chase Hallett yielded one hit over the remaining two and Harrison Politi hit an RBI single in the second inning during a 1-0 win over Centercourt Baseball 15U Rogers.
The championship game was tied 9-9 going into the sixth inning. There was close to 15 minutes left on the game clock entering the frame, but the coaches mutually agreed it would be the last regardless since both had run very short of pitching.
Mason Matis led off the top of the inning for the DJacks with a single beyond the reach of the second baseman and into center field. Nick Stangota then hit a single to right field, with Matis holding at second. Nate McGann dropped down a bunt single on the third base side to load the bases.
Hallett was up next, and grounded out to shortstop with Matis scoring from third. The next batter flew out to center, and an alert cutoff play resulted in a double play for the third out.
In the bottom of the inning, Cooper Cottell hit a one-out single to left for Baseball U. The next batter hit a grounder fielded by shortstop Hallett, who stepped on second for a force and then fired to first baseman Kusant in time for a game-ending and championship-winning double play.
Henry Kusant was 2-for-3 with four RBI in the championship game for the DJacks Super 15U.
The DJacks started the game impressively. Walks to Stangota, McGann and Jezorwski had loaded the bases when Kusant came to the plate with two out. He responded with a two-run single past the pitcher on the first pitch. Freyre walked to reload the bases, and Brendan Darling followed with a two-run double to right-center. Politi was then safe on an error to score the fifth run.
Baseball U scored once in the bottom of the first after Josh Miller singled to third with one out and Luke Powanda followed with an RBI triple to right.
Baseball U scored five times in the second for a 6-5 lead. After loading the bases with nobody out on singles by Gavin Turel, Jack Rock and Greyson Locker, an error on a ball hit by Cottell scored two. Chase Harman and Kaden Kolinsky followed with one-run singles and Miller hit a sacrifice fly for the first out of the inning.
The DJacks went ahead, 9-6, with a four-run fifth. The inning began with a single by Stangota. McGann walked and Hallett was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Following a pitching change, Jezorwski hit a one-run single to center. After a foul pop out to first base, Kusant delivered another two-run single on the first pitch, this time to left field.
“I was trying to attack early, catch a barrel and hopefully find a hole,” Kusant said.
Darling added an RBI fielder’s choice for the three-run lead.
Baseball U tied it in the bottom of the fifth, getting a two-run double from Ryan Yoo with one out and an RBI single from Turel with two out.
While the DJacks have two more events to play this fall, the tournament represented the team’s final event of the year at Diamond Nation.
“Even though we’re only working with 10 guys, our chemistry is working really good right now,” Hallett said. “We wanted to play well here this weekend. It was really important. We wanted to come out with a win and make a statement.”