Oliver Stokes singled, doubled and drove in three runs for the Diamond Jacks Super 14U.
By Rich Bevensee
Tyler LaGanga has been fighting through his mechanics, trying to maintain consistency when he takes the mound.
Oliver Stokes is a solitary monster in his home batting cage, always working on a swing which will bring about the best results.
Their dedication to making themselves better ballplayers has allowed them to get on a roll of late, as evidenced by their performance Saturday afternoon at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
LaGanga threw five scoreless innings without allowing a hit, and Stokes singled, doubled and drove in three runs. Together they helped Diamond Jacks Super 14U remain unbeaten in the 15U Grand Slam with a 9-1 pool victory over Grit 15U at ‘The Nation.’
The Diamond Jacks (2-0) face Santos 15U on Sunday before the three-team playoff begins. Grit (1-1) will face Sportika Baseball Academy 15U 2028 Red on Sunday to conclude pool play.
LaGanga had a solid outing in his last appearance leading into the Grand Slam, throwing two shutout innings with five strikeouts against Delaware Elite Baseball Club in a Perfect Game tournament in Millville.
But in that appearance and on Saturday, Diamond Jacks coach Chris Banos noted that he sometimes falls out of rhythm and free passes are the result.
On Saturday, LaGanga didn’t allow a hit in five shutout innings but yielded four walks against two strikeouts.
“He’s been fighting it a little bit,” Banos said. “He’s been fighting himself with the walks but his last two outings he’s settled down. I thought what he did today was get a lot of early contact, a lot of ground balls – a lot of weak ground balls, which allows you to get through the game further than you normally do when you’re behind.”
LaGanga said a small technical change allowed him to curb the walks.
Tyler LaGanga pitched five scoreless, no-hit innings for Diamond Jacks Super 14U.
“Sometimes I struggle to find the strike zone,” LaGanga said. “I get them 0-2 and then I walk them, like I don’t finish it. But I fixed my mechanics and my curveball got a lot better and I’m throwing more strikes. I used to move back a lot when I tried to throw as hard as I could, and that made me lose velo. Then I fixed that and now I’m throwing harder.”
Stokes said he got a jolt of confidence when he homered against Delaware in the second game of his team’s PG tournament last week.
Against Grit, Stokes slammed a two-run double into the left field corner in the top of the second inning to jump-start the Diamond Jacks’ offense. In the sixth, Stokes added an RBI single while the Diamond Jacks pulled away with a five-run rally.
“After the PG tournament and my first wood bat home run, my confidence has been really good,” Stokes said. “I’ve been finding the barrel a lot more after that.”
Chances are, Stokes’ confidence has been feeding off his work ethic more than a single home run. He said he prefers to work alone in his backyard batting cage nearly every day. And he’s checking out online videos to glean any information he can.
“I like working alone. I’m more of a solitary person,” Stokes said. “I’ll be scrolling through TikTok and if a video pops up, I’ll go outside, hit into the net and see if it works or not. I like thinking, putting my headphones on and working on my hitting. Sometimes I’m even out there in the snow.”
“Now I have a much smoother swing. I have faster hands and use more arms now, and that’s been helping a lot.”
On Saturday, the Diamond Jacks afforded LaGanga a 3-0 lead in the second inning on Stokes’ two-run double and when he scored on an infield error following Grit’s attempt to catch Alan Pena in a rundown between first and second.
The lead grew to 4-0 in the fourth inning on Logan Koziupa’s RBI single.
The Diamond Jacks finished off Grit with a five-run sixth inning. Nate McGann drove in Ryan Nigro with a single, Stokes singled home Ryan McGann, and Koziupa drove in Ryan Sharma with an infield single.
Pena grounded into a fielder’s choice where Grit threw out LaGanga at home, but an errant throw to first allowed Stokes to score. Finally, Koziupa scored on a wild pitch.
Andrew Vasil pitched the sixth for the Diamond Jacks, allowing one run on two hits with one strikeout.
Grit reached Vasil for a single run in the sixth when Lucas Lanzo tripled and soon scored on a Nick Fanelli groundout.
Michael Edelman pitched well in relief for Grit, allowing one run on one hit and two walks with five strikeouts in his three innings of work.