By Sean Reilly
Logan Koziupa has been a big-game pitcher throughout his career in the Diamond Jacks organization.
This year is no exception, as he made his first start of the 2026 season for DJacks Super 14U in the championship of the 14U Battle at the Turf on Sunday afternoon at Diamond Nation.
The right-hander didn’t disappoint, after striking out seven of the nine batters he faced in three perfect innings as the Diamond Jacks gained a 10-0, four-inning victory over the NJ Pride Noodles 14U for the title in Flemington.
“It felt great,” he said. “It was all about throwing strikes. That’s the number one goal.”
The DJacks scored twice in the second inning, once in the third and seven times in the fourth to end the game via the mercy rule.
Koziupa threw 36 pitches, 27 for strikes. Five of the strikeouts were looking, including the final three.
The two batted balls by the Noodles were a pitcher-to-first groundout for the second out in the first inning, and a ground out to second baseman Alan Pena for the second out in the second inning, in which Pena ranged deep and made a strong throw to Cole Izbicki for the out at first.
“I was using a four-seam fastball, sinker, slider and changeup,” Koziupa said. “We also scored a lot of runs, which is a confidence booster when you get to pitch with a lead.”
The DJacks started the bottom of the second with walks to Joe LoPresti, Joseph Conte and Aiden Messina.
After a pitching change, Tyler LaGanga hit a fly ball to shallow right field that dropped near the foul line for an RBI single. The next batter struck out before Pena hit a sacrifice fly to left field for a 2-0 lead.
Logan Koziupa pitched three perfect innings with seven strikeouts for the Diamond Jacks Super 14U.
Aaron Erb singled past the first baseman with one out in the third, stole two bases and scored on a ball four wild pitch to Ryan Sharma with two out.
Sharma pitched a hitless fourth inning, with one strikeout and one walk.
In the bottom of the inning, Conte led off and was hit by a pitch. Messina walked and LaGanga reached on a bunt single on the third base side to load the bases.
After a pop out to second base, Pena reached on an error that scored a run for a 4-0 lead. A wild pitch scored another run before Izbicki walked to reload the bases.
Koziupa hit a one-run single to center, and a wild pitch with Erb at the plate scored another to make the score 7-0. After a pop out to third, Sharma ended the game with a three-run double to left-center.
LaGanga had two of the five hits for the DJacks,
“This was a great start for our team,” said Koziupa, who made throwing strikes a priority during his winter workouts.
“I had been inconsistent with that during the fall season,” he said. “If you throw strikes, the defense will pick you up, and ultimately you’ll get strikeouts.”
The team, meanwhile, won all four of its tournament games, doing so with a 40-4 run differential.
“We did a lot of the little things well,” Koziupa said. “Things like getting guys in with less than two out with a runner on third, and putting runs on the board.”