Leadoff hitter Mickey Rooney walked and singled for Northeast Baseball.
By Rich Bevensee
In the five years that Justin Provost has been coaching youth baseball, a major tenet of his approach is preaching to his ballplayers the importance of developing mental toughness.
Collin Vera and Mace Phillips showed their coach and teammates Saturday night that they have that quality in buckets.
Vera twice stranded runners on third while pitching in relief, and Phillips, hitting in the No. 9 slot, executed an opposite field infield hit to drive in a key insurance run.
Together they helped lift the Hit & Run Outlaws 13U to a 10-4 pool play victory over Northeast Baseball of Harvard, Massachusetts, in the April Fools tournament at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“Getting five runs in the last two innings got us some breathing room, and Collin coming out and pitching two amazing innings to finish the game, that felt good,” Phillips said. Vera permitted no runs on one hit over 2⅓ innings, struck out two and walked none.
The Outlaws, hailing from Augusta, N.J., split their Saturday twinbill after bowing, 10-0, to Morris County Cubs White. They will finish pool play against the PA Gamblers on Sunday.
Northeast Baseball also earned a split on Saturday after rebounding from the loss to the Outlaws to beat the PA Gamblers, 9-8. NEB will face the Cubs on Sunday.
Vera entered the game with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Outlaws protecting a 5-4 lead. Krishav Patel had just belted a triple and represented the tying run, but Vera induced an infield grounder to preserve the lead.
“I can put him in whatever situation I want and he gets the job done,” Provost said. “His composure never changes.”
In the top of the sixth, Phillips came up with runners on second and third and one out. The lefty hitter swatted a slow bouncer down the third base line, too slow to enable a putout and at the same time pushing Braden Vanderbush across with an insurance run. Ryan Sedlak soon scored on a wild pitch to push the Outlaws’ lead to 7-4.
“I was trying to protect on a 3-2 count, just trying to get the ball in play,” Phillips said. “I’m pretty good on a two-strike count. I’m always hitting the ball, protecting, working myself to win the at bat.”
Vera was tested once more in the bottom of the sixth when NEB was trying to mount a comeback. Cooper Carolan reached on an error and made his way to third with one out. Vera was stone cold once again, inducing a comebacker and getting the third out with a strikeout.
Mace Phillips knocked in a key insurance run in the sixth inning for Hit & Run.
“I just focus on the batter. It doesn’t really matter about the runner,” Vera said. “I just throw strikes. It feels like I’m in that situation a lot. It’s kinda hard but I just throw strikes. It’s fun to be in that situation because I get to show I can throw strikes and do what I do.”
The Outlaws scored three more runs in the top of the seventh to put the game out of reach, as Cooper Cosh scored on a wild pitch and Ryan Sedlak pounded a two-run double.
“With my guys we preach the mental toughness aspect of baseball,” Provost said. “We’re developing them to become high school baseball players and teaching them how to overcome certain things. As far as toughness goes, this is the best group I’ve had in a long time.”
Northeast Baseball was resilient in fighting back from multiple-run deficits early on. The Outlaws built a 4-0 lead through its first two at bats, but NEB cut the margin down to a single run in the third. And when the Outlaws added a run in the fourth, NEB countered to get back within a run in the bottom of the frame.
Phillips, Sedlak and Jackson Schmid were the only Outlaws to chalk up two hits. Brayden Stocker had a two-run double in the first, Cooper Crespo had an RBI single, and Landon Chornobroff singled and drove in two runs.
Outlaws starter Cosh allowed three runs on five hits and four walks over three innings. Crespo pitched 1⅔ innings in relief and surrendered an unearned run on one hit and no walks with one strikeout.
For NEB, Patel went 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI. Mike DeAngelis was 2-for-3 with a double, Lukey Ebersole and Lukey Gamblin each had an RBI single, and Charlie Flashner had a pinch-hit, RBI groundout.