Christian Lewis cranked a two-run double for the Mid-Atlantic Hurricanes.
By Rich Bevensee
If the Mid-Atlantic Hurricanes point to a Prep Baseball Report tournament title won in Cortlandt, N.Y, at the end of July as the pinnacle of their season, then it’s within reason to say a mid-July Diamond Nation tournament was where their season really started to gain traction.
The Hurricanes were one of only five 15U teams to finish 4-0 at the Super 17 Invitational, July 17-21 at the Nation. That’s the reason they’re back this week in Flemington, where their run of summer success began.
That undefeated run earned the Bucks County, Pennsylvania-based squad an automatic berth in this week’s Super 15U Top 25.
With Declan Glass throwing five shutout innings and Liam Quinn coming up a single short of hitting for the cycle, the Hurricanes made the most of their return to the Nation with a decisive 9-1 victory over Cage Academy Elite on Monday afternoon.
Only the top five teams from the Nation’s Father’s Day Classic, 15U Diamond Nation World Series, Super 15 Invite, Beat The Heat and Boys Of Summer tournaments advanced to the Top 25 event. The semifinals (10 a.m., 12 p.m.) and championship game (2:15 p.m.) are slated for Wednesday.
Later on Monday the Hurricanes improved to 2-0 and boosted their standing for a playoff berth with a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Titans. The Hurricanes face Wladyka American in their final pool play game on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m.
Hurricanes coach Jason Carr outlined this summer’s path for the Hurricanes, one which took its time in picking up steam while heading for Flemington and then New York.
“We started a little slow, but once we hit that third tournament we played really solid there and played really good baseball from that point on,” Carr said. “Our biggest win was probably the PBR New York State championship in Cortlandt. We beat the Haymer Academy Barnstormers in the final. That was probably our signature win.”
Glass, a 5-9, 175-pound left-handed pitcher, was nearly brilliant on the mound on Monday, scattering five hits over five shutout innings while walking one and striking out seven.
“He’s our go-to. He’s our No. 1,” Carr said. “He’s the guy that when he takes the ball we’re gonna be in every game. The guys love to play behind him and we feel good when he’s on the mound.”
Only three baserunners advanced into scoring position against Glass, a rising sophomore at Plumstead Christian School in Pipersville, Pa. And by utilizing a four-seam and two-seam fastball and a curveball, only once did he allow the leadoff batter to reach base.
Liam Quinn is greeted by his Hurricanes teammates after hitting his first HR in two years.
“I like to say I can keep myself under control, especially in tight situations,” Glass said. “I stay focused on the batter as best I can, and I know that if I can get this batter it’s good for the team, not just me.”
Reminded that he was given sufficient offensive support and that there weren’t too many tight situations he faced against Cage Academy, Glass said he used the same approach as if it were a one-run game.
“I feel if I try to do too much, I may come across as cocky, and that’s not how I want to be seen by people,” Glass said. “So I try to keep the same mentality and focus and keep everything under control.”
Quinn, who swatted his first home run on a 90-foot diamond in more than two years, took the prodigious blast in stride.
“That home run felt great, but I don’t think I surprised myself,” said Quinn, a 6-foot, 188-pound rising junior at Central Bucks West. “I know I can do it. A big part of it was eating a good breakfast – I had a banana, it filled me up.”
Quinn seemed to be in the middle of every Hurricane rally.
He doubled and scored in the Hurricanes’ three-run second inning when they took a 4-0 lead. He cranked a 315-foot, two-run home run to left in the fourth inning for a 6-0 Hurricanes lead. And he tripled to the right-center field wall to drive in two more runs in the sixth as the Hurricanes took a 9-0 lead.
“He’s a kid that when he’s on, he hits as well as anyone,” Carr said. “And hitting a home run here at 15 is no easy task. I was excited for him to do that here.”
“My approach is I’m attacking any fastball that’s thrown to me because I don’t see a lot of them,” Quinn said. “I’ve been trying to find my swing the last couple weeks. I kind of lost it but I think I found it. I like to think of myself as a power hitter who can find the gaps. But I’m not gonna change my approach because I hit a home run. It’s working well for me right now so I gotta keep focusing on line drives and going gap to gap.”
With all that hitting going on for the Hurricanes, it was Noah Wallace’s guile on the basepaths which got his team on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning. Wallace walked, stole second and third, and raced home on an errant throw to third.
Matt Melendez races to first for an infield hit for Cage Academy Elite.
The Hurricanes tacked on three more runs in the second. Brayden Carr stroked an RBI single into center and No. 11 hitter Christian Lewis popped a two-run double to right for a 4-0 lead.
In the fourth, Quinn hit his two-run home run over the left field fence, his first on the big field since he was 13.
“And that field had a short porch,” Quinn said.
Quinn chugged around for a two-run triple in the sixth inning and Cooper Wiess added an RBI groundout for a 9-0 cushion.
With Quinn on the mound in relief of Glass in the bottom of the sixth, Cage Academy spoiled the shutout bid when Tyler Reddy drove in a run from third while hitting into a 6-4-3 double play.
Cage, one of five 3-0 teams from the Beat The Heat tournament (July 21-23) to qualify for the Super 15U, ran into two tough pitchers in its return to Diamond Nation.
Cage starter Alipio Figueroa did not allow a base hit until the seventh inning of his team’s first game Monday against the Lower Bucks Minutemen, but his team dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 decision.
Cage (0-2), a Matawan/Hazlet, N.J.-based club, finishes pool play with a contest against Hamilton A’s Nation on Tuesday at 8 a.m.