Jackson Staples rips an RBI double for the Diamond Jacks on Wednesday.
By Rich Bevensee
The Tidewater Phillies 18U ballclub, making the journey north from Virginia Beach to Diamond Nation in Flemington for the first time, brought an incredibly talented pitching staff which made everyone sit up and take notice, including the dozens of college scouts in attendance.
The Phillies’ only problem was that the Diamond Jacks Super 17U team had two dynamic arms waiting for them.
Right-handers Chase Woodring and Landon Bolan combined for a six-inning no-hitter and led the Diamond Jacks to a 3-1 victory in Week 2 of the Super 17 Invitational Powered by Victus.
A trio of hard-throwing Phillies righties – Daniel Hamilton, Harrison Thomas and Ryan Watson – struck out 10 Diamond Jacks while allowing just four hits and three walks on Wednesday in Flemington.
In the midst of Wednesday’s schedule in which a quarter of the 40 games played to that point saw teams score in double digits, the Diamond Jacks-Phillies game was the rare – and welcome – pitcher’s duel under the scrutinizing eyes of college scouts.
“You need to know that colleges are here to watch you and sometimes it does make you tighten up a little bit,” Hamilton said, “but today I was thinking go out there, show them what you have, don’t put a bunch of pressure on yourself when you know what you can do.”
Nik Holot, a 5-7, 160-pound rising senior at Hunterdon Central and a Fairleigh Dickinson commit, led the Diamond Jacks with a solid overall performance. He singled twice – he had two of his team’s four hits – and ended the game with a diving catch in left field.
He singled off Hamilton in the third and got an opposite field base hit off Watson in the fifth.
“With these guys you just have to be ready for the fastball,” said Holot, who batted .361 for Central this spring. “They’re good pitchers and they’re going to try to overpower you with the fastball so you have to be ready for it. Both my hits today were on fastballs. The second one I was protecting with two strikes. It was a good outside pitch, outside corner. You just have to put it in play.”
With a Division 1 commitment in his pocket, Holot is free of the worries that may come from wanting to impress scouts. His suggestion to those uncommitted souls is to play with a clear head.
The Diamond Jacks’ Nik Holot dives back to first base with the Phillies’ Ryan Watson holding the bag.
“For me it’s low stress,” Holot said. “Just having fun out here – summer baseball. I would say try to play with as low stress as possible. I know there’s a lot of people watching but play your game, don’t try to do too much.”
Woodring, a rising senior at Southern Lehigh in Southern Valley, Pennsylvania, pitched the first three innings and allowed the Phillies their lone run without a hit. He struck out three and walked one.
Bolan, a rising senior at Morris Catholic, closed out the final three innings with just one blemish, a walk in the top of the fifth. He struck out four in his three frames of work.
“The ball was coming out of both their hands pretty good today,” Diamond Jacks coach Kevin Cust said. “They were jumping on the hitters so that was good to see, and they were able to mix and match their pitches, so that’s pretty good, too.”
Despite Hamilton throwing low- to mid-80s pellets and mixing in four other offspeed pitches, the Diamond Jacks still found a way to catch up to him. Nick Do led off the first inning with a walk, stole second and scored when lefty hitting Jackson Staples ripped a double into the right center gap. Staples, a rising senior at The Hun School of Princeton, then scored on a throwing error following a Ryan Wetmore grounder for a 2-0 lead.
The Phillies got back one of those runs in the third when Landon Quillen walked, advanced two bags on infield grounders and scored on a wild pitch.
The Diamond Jacks added a key insurance run off Thomas in the fourth when Staples led off with a walk, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Elijah Dawes’ double to left center. Dawes is a rising senior at Hillsborough.
Hamilton, who gave up that Staples double and a Holot single, was terrific otherwise. In his final 2⅔ innings he struck out three straight and six of the eight final batters he faced. Hamilton (6-1, 210) is a rising senior at Ocean Lakes in Virginia Beach.
“I couldn’t really locate the curveball today but it was moving pretty well,” Hamilton said. “Honestly the slider was my bread and butter, no doubt. I’ve been having a problem lately when it comes to cutting the fastball. I’ve been throwing a lot of cut fastballs rather than a straight conventional four-seam. I’ve been trying to flatten it a little but honestly if I can throw a cut fastball at 85, 86, I’d be happy with that.”
Thomas threw one inning and surrendered one run on one hit and one walk with two strikeouts. Watson pitched a scoreless final inning for the Phils, giving up just one walk and one hit with two whiffs.