By Rich Bevensee
Confidence carries a lot of weight at the 10U level. Just ask the players from Westchester Giants Gold how much it matters, especially when trying to bounce back from a one-sided loss and face that same team again with all the chips on the table.
David Gomez was a picture of confidence on the bump, consistently finding the strike zone and finishing with an impressive one-hit shutout. Jacob List and Cooper Astman used a heightened confidence level in the batter’s box to supply Gomez with a pair of two-run singles.
Those players and some solid defense allowed the Giants to exact some revenge on Bucks County Generals Black with a 10-0, four-inning victory in the 10U slugfest championship game on Sunday afternoon at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
The Giants, which bowed to the Generals, 12-5, on Saturday morning in pool play, finished 3-1 in their Diamond Nation debut.
“This is a really big win,” Giants coach Anthony Gigante said. “We have a few tournament wins this year but this is our first trip to Diamond Nation, and winning at Diamond Nation is big. I played here as a kid so I know how hard it is. You have to play your best baseball and if you don’t, you don’t win here. I’m so proud of them. In the biggest moments they played huge.”
Gomez, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, allowed one hit and three walks and struck out six.
“This win is humongous for us,” Gomez said. “The pressure in a game like this is tough to handle, and sometimes the pressure takes over. It didn’t take over for me because our team scored a lot of runs so I had no pressure. Even if we gave up a run I’d still say no pressure.”
Gomez allowed one baserunner to reach scoring position, which came in the bottom of the second when Joey Murphy (the only General to get a hit off Gomez) singled and reached third with two out.
After walking the leadoff batter in the third inning, Gomez struck out the side
“David is a late bloomer with pitching,” Gigante said. “He just started doing it so he’s just now getting the hang of it and he was super-impressive today. One-hitter? That’s amazing. He’s a gamer. He goes out there and wants the ball. He plays with a lot of confidence and when you play with confidence, you usually get good results.”
List and Astman provided the biggest hits of the game for the Giants. In the top of the second with the Giants nursing a 2-0 lead, List broke open the game by poking an opposite-field, two-run single to right field. That was the key hit in a six-run Giants rally which saw their lead grow to 7-0.
David Gomez of Westchester Giants Gold is the 10U Slugfest MVP.
“I think we had more confidence in this game (as compared to the earlier loss to the Generals) because we started with the lead,” List said. “That gives you more confidence because you don’t have to think about getting the runs. You just think about getting more.”
After a scoreless third, the Giants applied more pressure in the fourth by scoring three more runs and reaching the mercy-rule threshold. Mirroring List, Astman drove an opposite-field, two-run single into right. List then stole home on a well-timed double steal when Astman broke for second.
“Today we had way more confidence,” Astman said. “Yesterday we were not the best we could be. This time we showed more confidence. We played our best game. We were all working together, all putting up hits. Everybody did their job.”
The Giants served notice in the top of the first inning that there would not be a repeat result of the pool play game, where they fell behind and battled to keep up. Generals center fielder Matteo Cundari threw out Santino Pellicano at home with a sensational throw, but two batters later, Manny Galan scored on an infield error for a 1-0 Giants lead.
In the second, Lewis Seckular kick-started his team’s six-run rally with a bases-loaded walk. List’s two-run single made it 4-0. Wes Colagiovvani singled into right to drive in a run, and List scored from third when the throw went to second. Pellicano added an RBI single for a 7-0 lead.
“I knew going into it, it would be tough,” Gigante said of facing the Generals a second time. “We’ve played them in the past at Ripken in Aberdeen (Maryland). They’re well coached and they’re really talented, so to beat that team you have to play your best game and we finally got to play our best game.”
I think the key for us was we threw more strikes and offensively we put the bat on the ball. At this age when you put the bat on the ball and make the defense make plays, usually good things happen.”