By Sean Reilly
There was absolutely no reason for anyone wearing a Morris County Cubs 9U uniform to feel nervous on Sunday morning at Diamond Nation, and it showed in their performance in the final two rounds of the 9U Williams Harley Davidson tournament.
A week after sweeping two Sunday games to capture the April Fools tournament title at ‘The Nation,’ the Cubs followed the same script to win another tournament.
Just like last week, the second-seeded Cubs had to first advance in a semifinal game on Field 4B.
That mission was accomplished when Jake Clougher hit a two-run double with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning for a 9-8 win over Sandlot Baseball Academy.
Once again, that meant a short walk over to Field 4A to play the waiting top seed in the final. This week, that opponent was the Burnt Hills (N.Y) Spartans.
The Cubs had their ace, Nick Scudilla, rested and ready to pitch, and he threw five no-hit innings before Tyler Drown closed out the game in the sixth as the Cubs won their second-straight title with a 5-1 victory.
Jace Rowen, who hit a sacrifice fly, RBI triple and also scored on a straight steal of home in the championship game, was selected the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“It’s really nice to win again,” Rowen said. “Last week helped out a lot. It helped feeling out the fields and knowing more. It made us more comfortable.”
Jace Rowen of the Morris County Cubs 9U was named Williams Harley Davidson tournament MVP.
It more than balanced out the fact that the Cubs lost a 7-5 pool play game to Burnt Hills on Saturday, which happened to be the team’s only setback over the past weeks.
“Today we were more active,” Rowen said. “Yesterday I felt that we really weren’t in it.”
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead over Burnt Hills in the top of the second.
Scudilla, who was tournament MVP last week, led off with a first-pitch double to left field. Kash Keelin reached on a first-pitch ground ball error that sent Scudilla to third. Rowen followed with a sacrifice fly to center.
The Cubs added another run in the third. Easton Riddle led off with a double to left, and after the next two batters were retired, Grayson Shepulski delivered an RBI single to left on a 0-2 pitch.
Scudilla, who closed out his pitching outing with eight strikeouts, two walks and one hit batter, was the leadoff batter in the fourth.
Having gone 1-for-1 with a triple and a walk against Burnt Hills on Saturday, in addition to his earlier double, Scudilla – the cleanup batter – was issued an intentional walk to start the inning.
The strategy looked like it might work when Keelin was safe on a grounder that forced out Scudilla at second. But Rowen followed with an RBI triple to center.
Colton Bennington was up next, and reached on a hit by pitch. After Bennington stole second, Rowen followed the next pitch by stealing home after taking off following the throw back to the pitcher.
Bennington went to third on that play, and scored on Clougher’s two-out infield single for a 5-0 lead.
Burnt Hills was one out away from being no-hit in the bottom of the sixth. Dean Salmon was then hit by a pitch, Keegan Carras singled to center and Toby Curcio hit an RBI single to center before the game ended on a pitcher-to-first ground out.