Ryan Luo of Locked in Baseball Expos Blue scores on hit by Ben Andrade for 2-0 second-inning lead.
By Sean Reilly
Some starts are more important than others, which was the case for Marcus Stamler on Friday night at Diamond Nation.
Stamler, a right-handed pitcher for the Locked In Expos Blue and a sophomore at Parsippany Hills, is looking to refine his game during the fall season. But his first start a week ago didn’t bring satisfying results.
“I’m trying to smooth my delivery and keep the same motion,” he said. “For the fall season, I want to stay consistent and consistently throw strikes for the high school season. Last week I didn’t have that good of an outing, so I wanted to improve tonight.”
Stamler began well in a performance which lasted into the fifth inning when Locked In Baseball Expos Blue defeated Baseball Warehouse, 10-3, in the opening game at the 16U Slugfest in Flemington.
Stamler allowed three runs (two earned) on no hits before exiting with two out in the fifth inning with a seven run lead. He struck out four and walked seven, four of which came when he began to tire in his final inning. Perhaps most importantly, he allowed only one ball to be hit to the outfield, which was caught in right field.
Three of his nine ground ball outs came in the first inning, setting a tone for the remainder of the game.
“My fastball was good,” he said. “I threw a few curveballs, but it was mainly my fastball. I fell off a little bit toward the end, but I’ll keep working on it.”
The Expos took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, getting an RBI double from Ryan Luo (2-for-2, two walks) and a run-scoring single from Ben Andrade (2-for-3, one walk).
Baseball Warehouse used an error, walk and hit batter to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning. Ryan Nunn had an RBI ground out to score a run, and a throwing error when the Expos tried to turn an infield double play scored another.
After that, the Expos took control. First came a three-run third inning for a 5-2 lead. Ryan Barber and Gavin Drum hit consecutive sacrifice flies, and Max Gonzalez reached on a throwing error to bring in the other.
Andrade then led off the fourth by reaching on a throwing error, and scored when leadoff man Sam Berk tripled to left center field with one out.
The Expos added four more runs in the fifth inning. Andrade and Sean Budis drew bases-loaded walks, Berk hit a sacrifice fly to center and Barber added an RBI single to left field for a 10-2 score.
Baseball Warehouse staved off an early end to the game in the bottom of the inning. Declan DiCarlo and Connor Levine started the frame with walks, they advanced on a wild pitch, and Nunn followed with a run-scoring ground out to second.
Two more walks loaded the bases before Michael Andrisano entered and induced a ground out to end the inning. Andrisano struck out the first batter and hit the next in the sixth and final inning. He then retired the next two to complete a combined no-hitter.