Ethan Strawn singled up the middle to drive in the game-ending run in the DJacks’ 10-0 victory.
By Rich Bevensee
It was business as usual for Diamond Jacks Super 16U on Monday evening.
Just a couple weeks removed from their impressive march to the championship game at the Prep Baseball 16U National Championship at LakePoint in Emerson, Georgia, the Diamond Jacks continue to roll out dominant performances in all facets of the game.
The Philly Bandits were the Diamond Jacks’ latest victim, bowing, 10-0, in four innings in the Super World Series at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
The win completed an impressive doubleheader sweep for the Diamond Jacks, who earlier in the day flattened Bucks County Generals 2028s Black, 12-3.
The Diamond Jacks (21-2-2) have two more pool games to play, against South Jersey Young Guns 2028 on Wednesday and Rotties Baseball on Thursday. The top five teams from this event qualify for the Showcase Series in August at ‘The Nation.”
Diamond Jacks leadoff hitter Ethan Strawn, a rising junior at Nazareth (Pa.) High, enjoyed a big game at the plate against the Bandits, going 2-for-4 with a three-run triple and the game-ending RBI single in the bottom of the fourth inning. He finished with five RBI and scored twice.
“Ethan started off in Georgia a little slow but in the playoffs he started picking it up and it has carried over,” Diamond Jacks coach Walt Cleary said. “Today he was outstanding and that’s the player that he is.”
Also for the Diamond Jacks, Brogan Perreault had a two-run triple, Gavin Ross doubled and Addison Adornato drove in two runs.
Strawn’s classmate at Nazareth, right-hander Carson Steingall, started the game and pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts and reached 90 mph on the radar. Michael Donohue, a right-hander and rising junior at Gov. Livingston, struck out six in three innings and allowed one hit and one walk.
Cleary said he limited Steingall to one inning because he is pitching in the PBR Futures Games on Friday at LakePoint.
All nine Diamond Jacks batters reached safely against the Bandits, six scored at least one run and four drove in runs. That kind of balance is exactly what drove the Diamond Jacks to win nine straight tournament games en route to the final in Georgia. As a team, the Diamond Jacks batted .400 in 10 games on the trip.
“We bonded and it was a lot of fun, and that’s why you play baseball,” said Jack Spitaleri, a first-year Diamond Jack and a rising junior at Glen Rock.
Cleary said this may be the best team to emerge from the Diamond Jacks facility in many years. The Diamond Jacks program precursor was the Super 17 program that set the bar extremely high. The 2008 Super 17 team, for example, included eventual Major Leaguer Mike Trout and a host of the state’s very best players at the time.
Philly Bandits pitcher Matt Plefka deals to the Diamond Jacks’ Owen Rivenbark.
“The biggest thing I can say is it’s a good group, a very close group, where they constantly feed off each other,” Cleary said. “Pitchers understand their roles at being pitchers only, the offensive guys and position players are lights out defensively and they all hit and they can really run the bases. The whole lineup is a tough out. It’s a fun team to coach.”
Luca Catanzarite, the Diamond Jacks leadoff hitter and shortstop, is a rising junior at Immaculata. In Georgia he led the Diamond Jacks by hitting .429 with two doubles, one triple, a homer, three RBI and scoring nine runs. He tied for fourth among all LakePoint hitters with 12 hits.
“I’ve been here (in the Diamond Jacks program) for six years and that was the most fun I’ve ever had with a team,” Catanzarite said. “We knew we had an amazing team coming in talent-wise, and we obviously had confidence to go that far. Coming in, not many teams knew who we were and I think we definitely rattled some people.”
Catanzarite suffered an elbow injury to his throwing arm on the Georgia trip and is awaiting diagnosis. It could be a big loss for the Diamond Jacks this summer. Through 25 games, Luca is batting .493 with 47 hits, seven doubles, two triples, five homers and 19 RBI.
In the PBR tournament, the Diamond Jacks defeated M.A.D. Mavericks National of Nashville, Tenn., 14-3, Performance National of Charlotte, N.C., 4-1, VA Seminoles-Gerrity of Richmond, Va., 10-3, the Southeast Sox of Cartersville, Ga., 10-2, and Hit Dogs Illinois-Busch of Naperville, Ill., 5-0, to go unbeaten in pool play.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but in our first game we mercied them (M.A.D. Mavericks National) and I was like, ‘I think we can keep this going,’” Spitaleri said. At PBR, Spitaleri went 10-for-23 with five doubles, one triple, one homer, seven RBI and 11 runs. “The run we had was awesome. I think we kept surprising people. I think we surprised ourselves, I can’t lie.”
In that final pool game, both the Diamond Jacks and Hit Dogs were 4-0 and aiming for a playoff bid. Cleary tapped Owen Ehrenkranz for the starting assignment, and the right-hander and rising junior off a terrific season at Princeton Day threw five no-hit innings to steer the Diamond Jacks to a playoff-clinching win.
“We definitely had confidence going into the playoffs,” Catanzarite said. “And with Carson starting the first (playoff) game and (James) Fenton starting the second one, we all thought, ‘Who’s going to beat us on the mound?’ We have so many arms.”
In the playoffs, Steingall pitched a one-hitter over five innings and the Diamond Jacks knocked out SBG Sox MS Prime 28 of Jackson, Miss., 8-0. Fenton, a rising junior at Metuchen, threw a two-hitter over four-innings in a 10-0 defeat of the Virginia Vols of Richmond. The Diamond Jacks then beat the Top 20-ranked 6-4-3 DP Cougars of Marietta, Ga., 5-2, to reach the semifinals.
Another Top 20 program, Canes American 2028 of Fredericksburg, Va., awaited in the semis. Justin Nardi and Donohue combined to limit the Canes to three runs on three hits and the Diamond Jacks grabbed a 7-3 victory. Spitaleri doubled, tripled and drove in two runs in the semi.
“Our team confidence was through the roof,” said Connor Bresler, a rising junior at Delbarton who went 10-for-25 with four doubles, six RBI and nine runs at PBR. “We probably played four Top 25 teams in the country and we beat all of them to get there. We definitely did surprise ourselves at the end, making the championship game. It’s all we could have dreamed of. We definitely weren’t expecting to go that far but with our pitching, our hitting, I knew we had something special going on.”
The Diamond Jacks’ magical PBR run ended in the championship game with a 5-1 loss to Southeast Rawlings Mad Mavs of Brentwood, Tenn.
The Diamond Jacks had just played 10 games in seven days, including five playoff contests in the last two days.
“To keep winning, to go on a 9-0 streak, it was such a fun environment,” Catanzarite said. “When we were winning, we didn’t think any team in the country beat us. But that last game we were so burned out. It was so hot and all of us were struggling.”
A handful of Diamond Jacks landed on the statistical leaderboards for the PBR tournament. Catanzarite tied for fourth in hits with 12, and Spitaleri and Bresler tied for eighth with 10 hits. Spitaleri also tied for fifth with five extra-base hits.
“I give all the credit to Coach Walt,” Spitaleri said. “We can have all the talent and all the potential in the world, but if you’re not well coached, you’re not going to go anywhere.”
Among the impressive roster of pitchers at LakePoint, Steingall tied for the second highest fastball velo at 94 mph, and Fenton tied for sixth in strikeouts with 13 whiffs in 6⅔ innings.
Fenton, a 6-4 right-hander, recently received some big news on a national scale. He was one of 88 players from across the country who were invited to perform at the USA 16U/17U National Team Development Program, July 27-30 at the USA Baseball complex in Cary, N.C.
“This means the world to me,” Fenton said. “For every baseball player growing up in the United States, it’s an honor to play for Team USA. I’m excited to meet the coaches, meet players at camp. The biggest thing for me is to be myself, play my game and not worry about what other people are doing.”