By Sean Reilly
It’s been a great year of baseball for Melvin Genao.
In the spring, he was selected First Team All-Passaic County at shortstop, after generating 40 hits and batting .388 as a junior for a Passaic Tech team that won the county tournament, as well as the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 tournament title.
His solid production continued into the summer campaign as the leadoff batter for the NJ Blue Jays 17U Red, which played their final event of the season over the weekend at the Diamond Nation 17/18U August Showdown.
There was just one thing missing from the past two months competing with the Blue Jays. Even though the team had played well enough, it had no championships to show for it.
That changed over five games and one particularly productive day at ‘The Nation.’
The Blue Jays won three games on Sunday, capped by a 6-3 comeback victory over Game on 13 Fury Elite for the Pool A-D playoff championship.
Genao delivered a crucial RBI single and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch during a five-run fifth inning that erased a 3-1 deficit in the final.
He also pitched 3⅔ innings of three-hit, scoreless relief, with six strikeouts and two walks, to earn the win.
Genao was also selected tournament MVP.
“It was a grind today,” he said. “You have to trust your teammates and come together. I actually struggled in the last game, I had a lot of downs, but my teammates came and picked me up and told me that I’m a key piece to the team. I just had to come back and show in the championship.”
Each of the three Sunday games was effectively an elimination game for the Blue Jays. A 5-4 win over Berks County Bulls Black in the morning pool play finale was needed to clinch a playoff berth. A 3-2 triumph over the South Shore Chiefs followed in an afternoon semifinal.
In the final, the Blue Jays, who ended the tournament with a 4-1 record, scored once after two were out in the top of the first. David Acevedo walked, Chris Arias was hit by a pitch and Jaysen Hernandez hit an RBI single to center.
Game On Fury Elite tied it in the bottom of the frame, as Gabe Almonte singled and later scored as Nico Racanelli sent a sacrifice fly to right field.
Game on Fury Elite added two runs in the third to take its two-run lead.
Catcher Mikey Santoiemma hit a one-out double to left, and was replaced by courtesy runner Maxwell Fredman. Leans Scarano hit a line single to left which moved Fredman to third. Gabe Almonte then ripped an RBI single to left, and Jackson Carroll singled to right to load the bases. After a strikeout, Scarano scored when Racanelli was hit by a pitch.
Melvin Genao of the NJ Blue Jays 17U Red was named 17/18U A-D August Showdown MVP.
The Blue Jays went down in order in the fourth inning, but the offense — limited to two hits at that point — came to life in the fifth.
The comeback began when Will Odige (2-for-3) singled to left with one out. He moved to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a ground out.
The two-out explosion kicked in as Marcus Nesci walked before Genao hit an RBI single to right on a 0-1 pitch.
Chris Kim was intentionally walked to load the bases, but the tying and go-ahead runs scored on wild pitches with Acevedo at the plate. Acevedo then walked before Arias hit a two-run double to right.
Game on Fury Elite had one last chance after the play clock expired during the bottom of the sixth. An infield single by Almonte and full-count walk to Jack Van Sise put runners on first and second with one out. Genao then got a strikeout and fly out to center to close out the championship.
“My fastball was working pretty good, so I just had to trust my catcher, pitch to throw strikes and let my defense back me up,” he said.
“We had a lot of great tournaments this summer, but unfortunately we couldn’t come through and get a championship, so this feels really good,”
Genao said. “We were pretty tired going into this game, but we came here to win a championship. We got together, and really locked in.”