Flores Baseball 12U Braves ripped eight HRs in the championship game to claim the Spring Inv.
By Rich Bevensee
A.J. Flores, a West Orange product who founded his club baseball organization nine years ago, had a difficult time recalling an offensive power display from any of his age group teams like the one he witnessed on Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
Keep in mind that this was the opening weekend of tournament baseball at the Nation. Typically, that’s a time when teams and players are shaking off the rust while battling chilly conditions and basically getting used to being on a diamond again after spending countless winter hours in indoor batting or pitching tunnels.
There was no shaking off rust for the Flores Baseball 12U Braves, who looked like they were hitting their summer stride.
The Braves launched moonshot after moonshot over the fence – eight home runs total – in a five-inning contest. And because of a scrappy Prevail Maroon squad which refused to be intimidated by this power surge, the Braves still needed a walk-off homer to win the ballgame.
Mason Lagano led off the bottom of the fifth by launching his second homer of the game and gave the Braves a 12-11 walk-off victory and the 12U Spring Invitational championship.
Will Hoffman homered in the final and was retired once all weekend to earn MVP honors.
“I surprised myself. I was thinking get on base and let my teammates hit it out,” Lagano said after his second solo shot of the day, off a 1-1 pitch which he sent over the right field fence. “It was exciting watching everybody hit home runs really far and rounding the bases and greeting them at home plate.”
The Braves homer power was so emphatic that all but one of their 12 runs came from driving the ball over the fence, and most of those longballs were tape-measure shots.
“They (Prevail) played some very solid baseball,” Flores said. “They were bunting and stealing bases, and our guys responded with home runs so it was cool to see the power.”
Many around the state may breathe a sigh of relief at Flores’ next comment, which is that this particular group of Braves players will not be together all spring and summer.
“This is a pop-up team. This is not a full time team,” Flores said. “We saw the names coming through and we knew it could be a dominant team by the way they’ve been swinging the bats.”
Lagana and Kameron Moyer each belted two homers. Braves leadoff hitter and tournament MVP Will Hoffman led off his team’s first at bat with a solo homer to center. Paul Basile and Liam Moutela hit two-run homers apiece, and No. 11 hitter Landon Genao rocked a homer as well. Moutela and Moyer led the team with three RBI each.
In spite of all those home runs, the Braves just couldn’t shake Prevail, which mostly used a small ball approach to stay within striking distance until the final pitch.
“We know some pop-ups are going over the fence,” Prevail coach T.J, Churchill said. “These are big kids and those balls are going to go out and you just stay the course.”
In fact, the visitors from Ramsey watched the Braves take a 4-0 lead on three homers in the first, only to rally over the second and third innings for an 8-4 lead. The comeback was sparked by Jonas Victoria’s solo home run in the second and fueled by Cole Rothstein’s two-run shot in the third.
When the Braves used four more homers to retake the lead at 10-8, Prevail got within a run on a Victoria sacrifice fly.
The Braves only run which wasn’t produced by the longball came when Moutela made it 11-9 on a sac fly in the fourth.
Prevail’s biggest hit came in the top of the fifth when Anthony Bsales, who came off the bench as a relief pitcher in the third inning, stepped to the plate for his first at bat. He calmly roped a two-run double to center to tie the game.
“Very gutsy, great at bat by Anthony,” Churchill said. “He swung through a take sign at 3-0, which some of the fans said he knew what he was doing. Got a great swing on 3-1. Very big at bat.”
The FB 12U Braves hammered eight homers in the championship game, thanks to (from left to right) Paul Basile, Kameron Moyer, Liam Moutela, Will Hoffman, Mason Lagana and Landon Genao.
Moutela made sure that his team’s hitting wasn’t the only thing Flores could praise once the game was over. Moutela came on to relieve Lagana after Bsales’ game-tying double. He got a strikeout, surrendered a single, got another strikeout, he intentionally walked Victoria to load the bases, and notched his third strikeout to end the threat.
“Liam came up in a big spot with the leading runs on base and struck out all three guys,” Flores said. “He pounded the zone and did an awesome job.”
MVP Hoffman was lauded for his all-around game this weekend. In the final, he played an errorless shortstop while going 2-for-2 at the plate and scoring three times.
“I was surprised since this is my first time playing (this season) and I only got out once,” Hoffman said. “I thought I would have been more rusty, but I came out swinging the bat and good things happened.”
For Prevail, Victoria homered, walked twice and drove in two runs. Rothstein was 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBI. James Buccola was 2-for-3 with a double and a team-high three runs scored. Christopher Poliandro was 2-for-3 with a double, and Christian Churchill went 2-for-4.