Overtime 15U went unbeaten through five games to claim the Labor Day Blast championship.
By Rich Bevensee
Ryan Lemm had not stepped on a mound to pitch in a game in more than a month and yet he felt supremely confident in his ability to deliver a championship to his club team, Overtime 15U.
While Lemm’s postgame self-analysis of himself was lukewarm, his actual performance was more than sufficient to deliver the goods for Overtime.
Supported by the longball services of Xavier Minaya, Lemm pitched three no-hit innings and propelled Overtime of New York to a five-inning, 7-3 victory over Monmouth County Oilers 2030 Scout in the 15U Labor Day Blast championship game on Monday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“Most of my stuff was commanded. I missed a little bit but I made it work,” said Lemm, a sophomore at Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains, N.Y., and the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Overtime, which draws players from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, went 5-0 this weekend to seize the 15U title.
The Oilers, which had scored 44 runs in three pool games, had to scratch and claw for runs on Monday. They beat Baseball U PA, 2-1, in the semifinals and were held to three runs by Overtime’s Lemm and Lucas Litton.
Lemm, a 5-9 righty, utilized a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup to keep the Oilers hitless through his three innings of work. He surrendered three walks and a hit batsman and struck out one.
“Pitching is dominant at this level, especially this time of year,” Overtime coach Alex Torres said. “Ryan came out and pitched his tail off and did a wonderful job.”
The only run Lemm allowed came in the third when Manny May walked and eventually scored on a Jaxon Bernick sacrifice fly. Lemm also benefited from a rigid defense. Center fielder Pedro Rodriguez made a terrific, back-to-the-plate running catch off the bat of Luke Leto to start the second inning.
Lemm said he was only mildly concerned that he hadn’t thrown in a live game in more than a month. He said he threw five bullpen sessions in that time to stay sharp.
“When I wasn’t finding the zone – I was missing low and my arm was a little delayed – I would change it up to offspeed,” Lemm said. “When I missed down low with the fastball I either set my zone up higher with the fastball or I’d go with an offspeed pitch.”
The Overtime offense was carried by Minaya, a 6-2, 180-pound sophomore at The Michael Petrides School in Staten Island. The lefty-hitting Minaya was hitting 3-for-8 through four games this weekend before his bat caught fire in the final, driving in four of his team’s seven runs.
In the first inning he got Overtime on the board with a laser-like RBI single up the middle.
In the third inning he took a 1-2 pitch over the center field fence for a two-run home run, his seventh of the season, to give Overtime a 4-0 lead. Minaya hit 10 homers this past spring in high school ball.
In the fifth, after the Oilers narrowed their gap to 4-3, Minaya hit another bomb to deep center, good enough for an RBI sacrifice fly and a much needed insurance run.
“Today I mostly changed my mindset,” Minaya said. “I was more focused on the game, more waiting for my pitch, looking where I can catch it. I wanted to try to get a ball in my kitchen zone.”
“For Xavier it was just a matter of time,” Torres said. “He was hitting the ball well this weekend. Today he just ran into one and he didn’t miss it.”
Ryan Lemm pitched three no-hit innings in the final to earn MVP honors for Overtime 15U.
Litton pitched the final two innings for Overtime, allowing two runs on two hits and three walks with two strikeouts.
Also fueling the Overtime offense, Izzy Busidan had an RBI groundout in the third, immediately before Minaya’s homer.
Credit the Overtime batters for responding when the Oilers made their comeback to get within 4-3. In the fifth after Minaya’s sac fly, Stephen Pio followed with an RBI double and Jayden Swanger added a run-scoring single.
The Oilers’ comeback in the fourth was fueled by two key at bats. Chris Portman hit an opposite-field single to left to drive in Austin Klein, and Andrew Vanderstar battled through a nine-pitch at bat before singling to left to drive in Justin McNamara and bring the Oilers to within a run.
Bernick pitched three innings for the Oilers and yielded three runs on two hits and two walks. Matt Byers allowed four runs over 2⅔ innings on four hits and two walks. And Portman closed with one-third of an inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.
The Oilers reached the championship game by winning one of the most dramatic games ever seen at Diamond Nation. It was a rare 0-0 contest against Baseball U PA entering the eighth inning when the California tiebreaker rule went into effect. Each team comes to bat with the bases loaded and one out.
Ryan Kearney pitched six innings for Baseball U before giving way to Liam Glackin. Portman pitched five for the Oilers and Bernick closed the game.
In the top of the eighth, Glackin stroked a two-out single to give Baseball U a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the eighth, Tyler Suero tied the game with an infield single, and Byers coaxed a bases-loaded walk to win the game, 2-1.
It seemed Field 1 at ‘The Nation’ was the hotspot for drama on Monday.
Before the semifinal between Baseball U and the Oilers, Baseball U needed extra innings to stave off the Morris County Cubs, 5-4, in the quarterfinals. In the bottom of the seventh with one out, Gannon Wilson executed a suicide squeeze bunt to bring Cal Horan home with the winning run.