Jayden Rosado shoots a two-run single through the gap on the right side for 3Up3Down.

By Rich Bevensee

There was no seminal moment for 3Up3Down 15U White to explain the team’s drastic turnaround these last few weeks. No walk-off, game-winning base hit, no final strikeout with the bases loaded to preserve a championship.

But one thing was for sure. 3Up3Down was playing some of its best baseball coming into Week 2 of the Summer Finale at Diamond Nation in Flemington, having won 11 of its last 14 games after struggling for the first two months of the season. 

The Reading, Pennsylvania-based program continued its hot streak on Friday night at ‘The Nation,’ scoring eight runs through the first four innings and hanging on to slip past the Long Island Mustangs, 8-6, in a Summer Finale pool play contest. 

“We’re all locked in and we all want to win,” said Jayden Rosado, whose opposite-field, two-run single in the second inning gave his team the lead for good at 3-1. “We’ve got a couple tournaments left and we want to win a championship, and we want to show everyone that just ‘cause our record’s not that great, we’re still a good team.”

3Up3Down coach Jacob Dianna said the team underachieved through the first two months of the season. He said he couldn’t point to any particular moment or game or player which helped the squad turn the corner, but that it was more of a collective effort.

“The team started playing together, I think because the communication was better,” Dianna said. “It’s always the fundamental plays which change the game. You drop two baseballs because you’re not communicating, it’s hard to keep the team in games.”

The defense behind starter William Lutz made the plays when it needed to, but it was the hitting which got Lutz the win. 

After Rosado’s two-run single broke a 1-1 tie in the second inning, 3Up3Down scored two more runs in the third inning and three in the fourth to race to an 8-1 lead. 

3Up3Down did its own heavy lifting and was opportunistic when the Mustangs suffered defensive letdowns, scoring two unearned runs in the third inning and three runs on three hits in the fourth.

With two outs in the third, Chris Robinson scored on an infield error and Lutz helped his own cause with an RBI single. In the fourth, Jeiury Vargas (2 for 4, double, triple) cranked a two-run triple and Kyle Berkhammer drove in Vargas with a single up the middle.

“Runs help win games, and we’re all about making contact with guys on base,” said Rosado, a rising junior at the Janus School in Mount Joy, Pa.

Aidan Smith cruises into third after collecting his second hit of the game for the L.I. Mustangs.

Lutz did a solid job of keeping the Mustangs from building a rally through the first three innings – allowing only one run on three hits – then began to tire before Chris Robinson relieved him with one out in the fifth.

Through 4⅓ innings, Lutz permitted six runs on nine hits and one walk and he struck out four. Lutz is a rising sophomore at the Downingtown S.T.E.M. Academy. 

“Will did a really good job throwing strikes and making the fielders do the work, and the guys made the plays behind him,” Dianna said. 

Lutz said for the first time this summer, his changeup was cooperating in the bullpen before his start, so the 5-9 righty finally had a third pitch to offer besides his fastball and curveball.

“I’ve been trying all year but today it clicked,” Lutz said with a laugh. “I’ve been working on it since I was 13 and I’ve never been able to throw strikes with it. I kept working on it this year. Today in the bullpen something clicked, it was finally working so we stuck with it.”

The Mustangs rallied against a tiring Lutz in the fourth and fifth innings. Jake Zuckerman and Nick Badolato had RBI singles in the fourth to bring their team within 8-3.

After yielding a leadoff walk to Dylan Parker in the fifth, Lutz gave up a base hit to Guiseppe Calabrese and a two-run single to Aidan Smith before handing off to Robinson. Two batters later Smith scored on an infield error to bring the Mustangs within 8-6. 

As fortune would have it, Robinson got the two outs he needed to retire the side with 90 seconds left on the game clock, meaning the another inning would start and the home Mustangs would get one more shot at completing the comeback.

But Robinson buckled down by retiring the first two batters before allowing a walk to John Ricotta, meaning that he’d have to face the tying run at the plate in Parker. Robinson got a strikeout to end the game.

For the Mustangs, three pitchers managed two innings each. Ricotta allowed three runs on three hits and one walk with two strikeouts. Calabrese permitted five runs (three earned) on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts. And Badolato pitched two scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and no walks while striking out three.

Smith led the Mustangs offense, going 2-for-3 with a double off the wall and three RBI. Zuckerman and Connor Doyle had two hits each.