Armando Agusti rocks a double to left center to give the Gamers a 4-2 lead.
By Rich Bevensee
Feeding off an exceptional pitching staff this summer, the Next Level Gamers Gold have developed a keen sense of how to respond to high leverage situations.
Twice in their game against the Monmouth Liberty Baseball Club, the Gamers defense threw out the tying run at the plate, and in another instance reliever Jaiden Fernandez got two strikeouts with the tying run on third base.
These examples of clutch play allowed the Gamers to defeat Monmouth, 5-3, and sweep their pool play doubleheader against Jersey Shore teams in the 17/18U Wood Bat division of the Labor Day Blast on Saturday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“When we have a one-run or two-run lead, our pitchers are more confident on the mound because they know we’ve been playing good defense behind them,” said Gamers coach Nick Luciano. The Hunterdon Central grad recently completed his first season as head coach at Division 2 Caldwell College. “Our pitchers believe in our fielders, which is huge because then they can pitch to contact. Our pitchers come from good programs so they’re used to plays being made and it trickled into the summer.”
In their pool play opener, the Kenilworth-based Gamers received an exceptional effort from 6-3 right-hander Jack Pimm in a 1-0 victory over the Tinton Falls Diamondbacks. Pimm, a rising senior at West Orange, struck out seven while allowing one hit and three walks over five innings.
“My side was really tight. I don’t know if I slept wrong but I had a knot in my back,” Pimm said. “I threw a lot of sinkers, mixed in the slider pretty well and was able to throw it for strikes early in the count. I slowed it down a little toward the end but I was able to locate it well and they weren’t really touching it.”
The Gamers needed more of a collective effort against the Liberty. The big bat belonged to Armando Agusti, who went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI. His RBI double off the left center field wall in the top of the fifth inning provided the Gamers a 4-2 lead and an important insurance run.
Agusti, a rising junior at Linden, said part of the team’s motivation for performing well in tight ballgames stems from Luciano, who is known for his icy glare and dead-serious tone.
“Mostly it’s our coach who makes us focus like that because I don’t want to run after practice,” Agusti said. “He’ll look at me and say, ‘Mando, lock in please’ and he walks away. You have to take him seriously. I’ve experienced some bad conditioning. You get the look, you have to lock in.”
On the hill for the Gamers was Union Catholic senior Lenny Peguero, who went five innings and allowed two runs on four hits and six walks while striking out four.
Luciano pointed out that the pitching staff has a sparkling 2.00 ERA this summer. Peguero said the reason for that is that his fellow pitchers draw motivation from every aspect of the game.
“It starts from making a play at short, a pitcher getting a strikeout or us getting a big hit,” Peguero said. “It’s all just momentum and we always feed off of that. And if a pitcher comes in from the bullpen he always wants to help the starter out.”
Jaiden Fernandez pitched an inning of relief for the Gamers and allowed one run on one hit and one walk with three strikeouts. Fernandez was on the bump when Monmouth’s Jack Russo singled and eventually reached third with one out. Fernandez responded with a pair of strikeouts.
In the seventh, Matt Schaefer came on for Fernandez, gave up a one-out single but avoided damage with a fielder’s choice and a strikeout to end the game.
The Gamers kick-started their offense with a little help from the Liberty, who committed a two-out throwing error. E.J. Olavarria and Jackson Crimaldi scored, giving the team a 2-0 lead.
Gamers pitcher Lenny Peguera tags out Monmouth’s Thomas Lee at home in the second inning.
Zach Ercolino singled in a run in the bottom of the first to cut Monmouth’s lead in half.
In the bottom of the second, Peguera uncorked a wild pitch but Gamers catcher C.J. Krupa retrieved the ball and tossed to Peguera in time to tag out Thomas Lee trying to score from third.
Riding high from that play, the Gamers logged an insurance run in the top of the third when Agusti drove in Olavarria with a single to left to make it a 3-1 game.
In the bottom of the fourth, Monmouth threatened to tie the game again. Eli Gonzalez doubled to left, allowing Jack Dougherty to score, but Lee, trying to score from first, was thrown out at the plate, this time on a great relay throw from shortstop Gio Romano, a rising sophomore at Delbarton.
Agusti made it 4-2 for the Gamers on his RBI double off the left-center field wall in the top of the fifth.
Monmouth crawled back to within a run again at 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth when Tyler McDougall scored on a Fernandez wild pitch.
After getting hit by a pitch and walking twice, Crimaldi got his first hit of the game and provided a huge RBI for the Gamers in the top of the seventh. With two out he ripped a hard grounder up the third base line. Liberty third baseman Andrew DiMarsico made a great diving stab but his throw was too late to get Crimaldi, whose hustle allowed Liam Ramos to score.