Brian McCabe of Vikings Baseball drove in his team’s only run with an RBI single in the third inning.
By Rich Bevensee
Justin Meekem will be the first to confess that maintaining your composure as a pitcher is not easy when your stuff is not locating and batters are getting free passes. It’s taken him a while – years, really – to learn how to compose himself and focus on escaping traffic.
On Tuesday night at Diamond Nation in Flemington, Meekem was having one of those nights. Not a terrible night, but an off-night by his standards. Rather than folding, he kept his cool and navigated around the damage.
Meekem walked four batters in four innings but surrendered only one run on one hit while leading Hustle Baseball-2 to a 4-1 victory over previously unbeaten Vikings Baseball in the Diamond Nation High School Fall League.
“Back when I was younger, like in middle school, there were a lot of struggles. My head was not straight, and usually I would just lose it,” Meekem said. “But I learned to battle back. You always have power and you’re always in charge when you’re on the mound, so give them your best stuff and that’s all you can do.”
Later on Tuesday evening, Hustle earned a 4-3 triumph over Zoned RedHawks 18U to win its fourth straight and run its record to 6-2, which leads the Fall League.
“The league’s really good competition but for these guys it’s about development,” Hustle coach Matt Rago said. “Trying to work on things from the summer as an extension of that, and prepare them for varsity baseball. We have a mix of freshmen and seniors – we’re all over the place with that – so it’s just about development.”
Vikings Baseball, after outscoring its last two opponents by a combined 18-1, failed to manufacture enough offense against Meekem and reliever Jordan Rothseid and fell to 3-1. The Vikings play one game a week in the Fall League and Hustle-2 is on a two games-a-week schedule.
Both teams return to ‘The Nation’ on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Hustle-2 will take on Zoned RedHawks 17U and Top Corner Sports Blackhawks Black, while the Vikings will face Allentown Legion.
Hustle didn’t overwhelm the Vikings as much as it grinded out a few runs with opportunistic offense. In the bottom of the first inning Nick Riley scored on a wild pitch, Jake Sweat hit a bases-loaded dribbler that went for an RBI single, and Anthony Della Rosa knocked in another run with a fielder’s choice to give Hustle a 3-0 lead.
That was enough support for Meekem, a 6-1, 182-pound Lakeland senior who mixed his fastball, changeup and curveball just well enough to keep the Vikings from building a rally. The righty struck out five in his four innings of work.
“I thought I did all right,” Meekem said. “Velo wasn’t there so I had to use a lot of breaking balls. I couldn’t really locate the fastball so I just had to do what I could do. Today the curve was my power pitch, but today just wasn’t my day. When things aren’t going right, I usually take a second, step off the mound and reset mentally. There’s always going to be a little frustration but you keep your head in the game mentally.”
Union Catholic junior Brian McCabe drove in the Vikings’ only run with an opposite-field, Texas Leaguer which fell inside the right field line and scored Noel Gonzalez in the top of the third.
Jordan Burwell, a Seton Hall Prep senior and West Virginia commit, scored the final run of the game for Hustle on a two-out wild pitch in the bottom of the third. Burwell walked and scored twice.
Jordan Burwell of Hustle-2 scrambles into third. Burwell scored two of his team’s four runs.
This fall is the first time Rago has coached Meekem but he is already pleased with the right-hander’s progress when it comes to self-correction and maintaining composure with runners on base.
“He’s been building each outing,” Rago said. “Whenever there’s runners on base, those are the most important pitches pitchers have to make. We spend a lot of time teaching that, so he did a good job with runners on base, pitching from the stretch. He had a good feel for his breaking ball, and innings two and three he settled in.
“He’s still working on limiting the deep counts. His pitch count got up there pretty quick after the first inning, so he’s trying to get guys out of the box in three pitches or less.”
Apart from the mental side of pitching, Meekem said he’s still working on perfecting his mechanics.
“My biggest thing right now is I have to stride toward the plate,” Meekem said. “I feel myself falling off sometimes and the ball goes arm side or high. There’s always work to be done. Hopefully I’ll be playing college baseball soon so I have to keep working.”
Rothseid, in relief of Meekem, threw two shutout innings while allowing just one hit and two walks and he struck out one.
That one hit Rothseid surrendered was the loudest of the night for the Vikings, an opposite-field double for Luigi Sacco in the top of the sixth.
Sacco, a UC sophomore, also pitched well in relief, striking out four in three shutout innings while allowing one hit and one walk.