Diamond Jacks 14U Super used nine pitchers to go 3-0 and win the Home Run Classic championship.
By Rich Bevensee
Baseball is a game of adjustments, and Aaron Erb understands that maxim better than most.
The center fielder for Diamond Jacks Super 14U had only a vague idea he may pitch in relief in the championship game of the Home Run Classic before he actually stepped on the mound at Diamond Nation in Flemington. When called upon, Erb changed gears seamlessly and recorded three shutout innings.
Before his third plate appearance of the game, Erb recalled that Underground Vipers ace Saverio Longo threw him a flurry of curveballs in his prior at bat, so Erb guessed he would not be hunting fastballs when he came up to the plate in a tie game with two on and two out in the top of fifth inning.
Erb’s in-game management proved flawless once again. The lefty hitter drilled a 1-0 curveball into the right field corner to drive in two runs and ultimately lift the Diamond Jacks to a 5-2 victory and the 14U Home Run Classic title on Sunday at ‘The Nation.’
“I knew we had two outs and a runner on third,” Erb said. “In my at bat earlier he threw me a bunch of curveballs so I was expecting a curveball and he threw me one and I just put my bat out there.”
The Diamond Jacks have won their last eight and improved to 30-6 overall. Erb, the team’s leadoff hitter, went 3-for-5 in three games with a double, triple, four walks, three RBI and four runs scored to earn Most Valuable Player honors.
The Vipers (12-4-2), based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, had won six of their last seven going into the final. A major core of the team earned a berth in the Little League World Series two years ago.
Diamond Jacks coach Travis Anderson said Erb’s ability to be ready to pitch on a minute’s notice is why he keeps the lanky right-hander in the relief rotation. In fact, it’s a system Anderson said he uses for all his pitchers.
“I want to give those guys a little bit of leeway but I don’t want them to think too much,” Anderson said. “I want them to just throw the ball near the plate and compete.”
Erb acknowledged he’s always ready for relief work but he did not know he would relieve Cole Izbicki in the final. With the Diamond Jacks trailing, 2-0, Erb came on in relief in the third inning and allowed just one hit and one walk in his three scoreless innings. He also struck out one.
The Diamond Jacks came back to tie the game at 2-2 in the fourth before Erb went out for his final inning of work.
“Coach Trav likes to put us all in the rotation so I knew I’d have my time,” Erb said. “I felt good. I knew the game was close and I had to bring some energy. I was really excited up there and just threw strikes.”
“When Aaron is on he keeps the ball down and he’s aggressive, and he’s an athlete up there,” Anderson said. “The only thing he wants to do up there on the mound is compete. The one thing I told him was, ‘Don’t get too crazy. You can spin some breaking balls up there but our goal is we need to get ahead (in the count) and put the hitters on their heels.’ ”
Some of the Diamond Jacks were already acquainted with Longo when the teams took the field, but for those players who didn’t know, Longo introduced himself rather quickly. He struck out the side in the top of the first inning, then belted a two-run home run in the bottom of the frame for an early 2-0 Vipers lead.
Aaron Erb’s bat and arm for the Diamond Jacks earned him the 14U Home Run Classic MVP award.
Longo retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, with Alan Pena being the only Diamond Jack to figure him out at that point, singling sharply up the middle in the third.
The fourth inning is when Longo ran into trouble.
“The kid on the mound is a very good arm and we knew we would be in a battle with him,” Anderson said. “When you get guys like that you want to make them uncomfortable. Our hope was to get him in the stretch a little more, maybe tire him out and make him throw more pitches.”
Joe Conte opened the fourth by reaching on a hit-by-pitch. He moved to second when Erb walked and scored on a one-out single by Ryan Sharma. After Aiden Messina walked to load the bases with two out, Marco Gulyas, a recent call-up from Diamond Jacks Gold, earned a base on balls to send Erb home with the tying run.
The Diamond Jacks broke the Vipers’ back in the fifth. With Diamond Jacks runners on first and third with two out, Vipers coach Brad Hamilton made his second mound visit of the game and chose to leave Longo in the game.
Two pitches later, Erb belted a triple to give the Diamond Jacks a 4-2 lead. Longo left the game having thrown 89 pitches, allowing five runs on three hits and five walks with seven strikeouts.
“Unfortunately we were getting put in a hole so we had to take shots at good hitters,” Hamilton said. “I said to him, ‘You gotta throw a perfect strike and if not it’s gonna be a ball.’ We knew the outcome would be 50/50. That was just me managing him through that process.
“When you get into a situation like that, you still have to make your pitches and sometimes you get squeezed. And when you get squeezed you have to put it where it’s going to get hit and you have to know it.”
Anderson said scoring on Longo came down to challenging him in every at bat and making him pitch from the stretch.
“You want to get the pitch count up on a kid like that,” Anderson said. “You don’t want to see him in the sixth or seventh inning. You don’t want a kid like that to get comfortable and dominate everybody. What you need in a game like that is chances. We got one chance, got a couple runs and put some pressure back on him, then Erb had the big triple.”
Tyler Neeld came on in relief for the Vipers and Daniel Chu greeted him with an RBI single for a 5-2 Diamond Jacks lead.
Erb pitched a scoreless fifth thanks to a 1-6-3 double play. When Pena came on for the sixth inning, the Vipers got the tying run to the plate with two out thanks to a walk and a hit batsman. Pena induced an outfield fly for the final out.
Izbicki, Erb and Pena limited the Vipers to three hits, two walks and two hit batsmen.
“They were a good team,” Erb said. “It was a team effort holding them down.”
The collective pitching effort for the Diamond Jacks this weekend was exceptional. Tripp Fabiano, Logan Koziupa and Tyler Izbicki held the Keystone Aces to three hits in an 18-4 pool play win on Saturday. In the semifinals, Tyler LaGanga, Sharma and Gulyas limited the Bucks County Generals to four hits in an 8-4 decision.
“We pitched by committee this weekend and we’re going to need more of that this summer as we get into these week-long events,” Anderson said.