By Rich Bevensee
The players insist they don’t take winning for granted, and to prove that, they continue to practice the smallest, mundane tasks which sharpen baseball skills.
The players who have elevated the Out Of The Park 14U Cyclones into a nationally-ranked ballclub do these things because of one simple truth:
Winning never gets old.
Who better than the Cyclones to echo that sentiment? All the team has done in the last calendar year is show up at tournaments, dominate the competition and take home championship hardware.
On Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington, the Cyclones were up to their old tricks. They defeated Diamond Jacks Super 14U, 4-2, in the championship game to complete a 4-0 weekend at the 14U Fall Harvest, Powered by Cortes and Hay.
The Cyclones claimed their second championship of the fall season while improving to 10-1 at the Nation with a run differential of 113-10.
Need more proof that winning is everything to this club? Let’s use a bigger sample size. At ’The Nation’ this calendar year, the Cyclones are 29-1 with a run differential of 301-27.
Those accomplishments have led to some lofty accolades. At the end of their 13U spring/summer campaign, Perfect Game ranked the Cyclones No. 4 in the Mid-Atlantic Region and 69th nationally. The Mid-Atlantic Region includes New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.
“I don’t think winning ever gets old,” said Cyclones center fielder and pitcher James Esposito, named the 14U Fall Harvest Most Valuable Player after leading an offensive attack which outscored the opposition 53-3 in four games.
“Our coach keeps us in line and we all work together really well,” Esposito said. “We know that if we don’t do our jobs we don’t win. Everyone has to stay in their lane, do what they do, and we win.”
Only once this year have the Cyclones made the trip to Flemington and packed their cars without a championship trophy. At the Grand Slam tournament Sept. 27-29, the Cyclones lost to eventual champion Bulldog Baseball Showcase of White Plains, N.Y., 3-1, in pool play. That loss ended a 43-game win streak and nine straight championships.
That loss to the Bulldogs still stands as the only loss the Cyclones suffered at Diamond Nation this fall.
Every team with such an intense focus on smoothing out every single wrinkle in its game has a coach with an eye for detail. Cyclones coach Travis Zilg, a Watchung Hills and Ramapo College grad, said working on the details are paramount to how the team trains.
But Zilg added that the players have completely bought in and that he’s never played the role of taskmaster at practice or on game day.
“Winning is never routine for us,” Zilg said. “These kids never settle for just playing. We’ve won our share of tournaments and every weekend they’re ready to do it again. We’ve never had to ask them to get ready. We’re fortunate that we have a team full of guys who never take winning for granted.”
The Fall Harvest championship game was a rematch of teams which battled in the Slugfest final, with the Cyclones winning that one as well by an identical 4-2 count.
The story of the tournament was Esposito, who went 9-for-13 in four games with three doubles, a triple and seven RBI. He even pitched 1⅔ innings of relief in the final and struck out three of the eight batters he faced.
In the championship game, lefty starter Vinny Donofrio was the difference. With a devastating curveball rarely seen coming out of the hand of a 14-year old, Donofrio frustrated Diamond Jacks hitters through his 5⅓ innings of work. He struck out 10 while allowing one run on two hits and one walk.
“My curveball is my most accurate offspeed pitch,” Donofrio said. “My changeup moves a lot but it’s hard for me to roll off my fingers and to locate it and have it drop down. The curveball, I always get it over because I like the grip and I’m always comfortable with it.”
James Esposito of the OOTP Cyclones was named 14U Fall Harvest MVP.
Through his first five innings, Donofrio surrendered just one run, a second inning RBI groundout by Vic Burgos. Including that blemish, Donofrio faced just three batters over the minimum thanks to a heavy dose of curveballs mixed with a fastball and changeup.
The most impressive stat from Donofrio’s performance was that he held the top four Diamond Jacks batters to 1-for-10 hitting with eight strikeouts.
“We knew the Supers had some good hitters at the top of the lineup,” Zilg said. “So we held out Vinny for this game because good hitters have a hard time with lefty pitchers, and we knew their hitters would have difficulty with his curveball.”
Zilg said he not only saved Donofrio for this particular tournament final, but that it has become a somewhat regular assignment for his crafty lefty. And Donofrio has fully embraced the challenge of bringing home championships for the Cyclones.
“I never take it for granted – winning never gets old,” Donofrio said. “If you take it for granted we wouldn’t focus and not win a lot of games. Going out and playing here and winning is the most fun ever.”
The Burgos RBI groundout was the first run scored in the final and a product of two exceptional at bats. Drew Gable fought off four offspeed pitches with two strikes before drilling a triple to dead center field. Two batters later Burgos fouled off three Donofrio offerings with two strikes before getting enough of his barrel on the ball to slap a grounder to second and drive in Gable.
The Cyclones claimed the lead with two unearned runs in the bottom of the second. After an infield error allowed the Cyclones to put runners at second and third, Cody Alicea scored on a wild pitch and Brad Bateman drove in Lucas Bolton with a fielder’s choice RBI for a 2-1 lead.
Bolton got into the act again in the fourth. He tripled to left when Diamond Jacks left fielder Nick Stangota came up just shy of a diving attempt of Bolton’s soft liner and the ball rolled to the wall. Bolton scored on a wild pitch from Diamond Jacks starter Remington Mortman for a 3-1 lead.
Mortman, relieved after four innings, yielded three runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts.
Bolton got into the scoring column one more time against Diamond Jacks reliever Chase Hallett when he drove in Andrew Schmeider with an RBI groundout. It was another unearned run surrendered by the DJacks since the groundout would have been the third out were it not for an infield error on an Alicea grounder.
Hallett pitched two innings in relief and permitted one unearned run on two hits and two walks with one strikeout.
In the seventh the Diamond Jacks tried to mount a comeback when Mason Matis drew a leadoff walk and Hallet drove him in with a one-out single up the middle. Esposito, showing off his mid-70s fastball in relief, struck out the next two batters to end the game and clinch the title.
It was a boost of confidence for Esposito to close out the championship since he returned from a shoulder injury two weeks ago. Esposito showed off his considerable range in center field with two exceptional running catches, but said that the mound is where he feels more comfortable.
“I injured my right (throwing) shoulder this summer but I’m 100 percent now,” Esposito said. “I was cleared by the doctor a couple weeks ago but I really started to feel like myself again last weekend.
“I like being a pitcher because I like being involved with every single play. In center I might get a few plays but pitchers are in every single play.”