J.C. Pacheco is greeted at home plate by Eric Pinales after homering on the second pitch of the game for Complete Performance Baseball Academy.
By Rich Bevensee
Will Auerbach walked to the plate for his second at bat of the game wearing the widest ear-to-ear grin of any ballplayer on the Diamond Nation campus. His Long Island Elite 17U ballclub had just taken a one-run lead and the bases were loaded, and he knew what pitch was coming.
“I had a big smirk on my face. I couldn’t contain it,” Auerbach said.
Auerbach drove that pitch to the fence in center field for a three-run triple, a blow which led Long Island Elite to a 6-4 victory over Complete Performance Baseball Academy 18U in the wood bat division of the Garden State Invitational on Thursday evening at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
After the game, Auerbach flashed an even bigger smile than the one he wore before hitting the triple. He was recounting how thankful he was just to be back on a baseball diamond.
When he suited up for LI Elite in early June, it was the first time he was given clearance to compete in athletics since completely tearing the meniscus in his right knee last fall during football season at Kellenberg Memorial, a Catholic prep school in Uniondale, Long Island.
Not only was he sidelined for the football team’s final regular season game and the playoffs, he was forced to sit out the entire high school basketball and baseball seasons.
So yeah, talking about playing baseball again gave him reason to smile.
“Just standing here feels unbelievable,” Auerbach said. “When I finally got to play with this team, it was the best feeling. It was so great to be back on the field for this team.”
Auerbach faced a rough road not only with physical therapy, but with the fact that he would miss almost an entire high school year of varsity sports.
“It killed me. It absolutely killed me,” Auerbach said. It was the worst watching people play. It was a surreal feeling, like it was the best feeling in the world playing for that team and it sucked that I wasn’t a part of it. What killed me the most more than anything in my life was to miss the high school baseball season.”
Connor Flynn lines a two-run single to left for Long Island Elite.
If missing baseball season at Kellenberg was the worst feeling, then being forced to use crutches was a close second.
“Using crutches was the worst thing ever,” Auerbach said. “You take things for granted like walking. Not being able to walk was the worst. I was on crutches for three months.”
Auerbach attended physical therapy twice a week and lifted weights at home, tapping into a white-hot determination to return to health – and to the baseball field. In early June his doctors and therapist gave him the green light to resume baseball workouts.
After LI Elite’s triumph over Complete Performance, the Long Islanders made it a doubleheader sweep Thursday with a 13-4 victory over Wladyka National and finished the showcase week 3-1.
In the four games, Auerbach went 6-for-11 with a triple, five RBI and four runs scored.
It’s been a successful return to action for Auerbach since rejoining his team in early June. Through 21 games he’s batting .407 with two doubles, one triple, three home runs, 14 RBI and 16 runs scored.
“I expected to be back,” Auerbach said. “I knew I was going to come back and be the best player I could be.”
“Missing so much of the game that you only get so much time to play, to be able to get back healthy and make an impact for us, it’s really been a spark for our team,” LI Elite coach Joe Roche said. “We’re happy to have him back.”
The inning in which Auerbach launched his three-run triple was the culmination of Elite bats getting traffic on the bases and finally breaking through to drive runners home.
After a quiet first inning, Elite stranded runners at second and third in the second. The next inning was their breakout.
Timmy Pendergast, Tyler Marquart and Ethan Ruff walked to load the bases with one out. After an infield pop out, cleanup hitter Connor Flynn swatted a two-run single through the left side to bring Elite within 3-2.
“I love batting in that situation,” Flynn said. “That’s what every kid hopes for, to get those runs in and start that rally.”
Chase Troiano walked to re-load the bases, and Auerbach knew what was coming next.
“I knew I was going to get my pitch. I had a feeling,” he said. “My first at bat, 1-0 pitch, he gave me a high fastball. Second at bat, basically the same situation, 2-0 pitch, he threw me a high fastball and I drove it up the middle.”
Auerbach’s drive gave Elite a 5-3 lead, and Philip Bunt hit an opposite-field double into right to drive in another run.
Long Island Elite’s Will Auerbach has been terrific since returning from a devastating knee injury.
“We just worked good at bats, passed the bat to the next guy and got some traffic going,” Roche said. “We had some traffic early in the game and didn’t execute. Got a really big at bat from Auerbach to clear the bases and just opened the game up. We were happy to get our pitcher the lead back so we could work from ahead the rest of the game.”
Nic Esposito gave up a run in the fourth inning – Eric Pinales had an RBI single to bring Complete Performance within 6-4 – before handing the reins over to Flynn. In four innings Esposito surrendered four runs on five hits and four walks with four strikeouts.
If there was ever a time for solid relief pitching, this was it for Flynn and LI Elite.
Complete Performance announced its offensive presence with authority from the outset, as leadoff hitter J.C. Pacheco, a DePaul Catholic grad who’s headed to Arizona State, homered on the second pitch of the game.
Complete Performance scored three that inning – John Galka added a two-run single – before Elite staged its comeback and handed the ball to Flynn.
Flynn, a rising 6-2, 230-pound rising senior at Mepham (N.Y.), responded with two scoreless innings, striking out three while allowing one hit and two walks.
“I’m primarily a first baseman but I don’t mind being called on to pitch,” said Flynn, who used a fastball, slider and splitter. “I like throwing my slider because my fastball tails to my arm side and my slider does the complete opposite, so it confuses them.”
Complete Performance closed its showcase week at 1-3. The team opened with a 6-4 win over Dodgers Nation Select-Team Micheli before losing to Combat 2027 Select, 8-4, to 5-Star National NY-Select, 10-7, and to LI Elite.
For Complete Performance, Trevor Racher allowed six runs in three innings on four hits and six walks. Chase Cammarota pitched three shutout innings and yielded two hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
Pacheco finished 2-for-2 with a homer, a single, a walk and an RBI. Pinales had an RBI single and Caelan Burschell doubled.
Pacheco’s DePaul team this past spring featured three Division 1 players. Jason Amalbert is headed for Oklahoma and Aiden Ogando is bound for James Madison.