By Rich Bevensee
Gotta hand it to the Morris County Cubs 14U Navy baseball team. They really know how to bring down the curtain on the season.
The Cubs had only nine players at their disposal for their final tournament of the summer, yet managed to win five straight games – including an extra-innings tournament final – to clinch their second straight Diamond Nation title and close the 2024 campaign on a 10-game win streak.
The culmination of their summer success could not have been more thrilling. In the bottom of the eighth inning of the Boys of Summer championship game in the 14U Red pool, the South Jersey Young Guns trailed by two but had the tying runs in scoring position with one out, courtesy of the Nation’s extra innings tiebreaker system.
The first batter grounded to Cubs third baseman Cooper North, who calmly stepped on third and fired to first to complete a double play and clinch a 5-3 championship victory on Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“This was our last tournament so this was really satisfying to end our summer season this way,” Cubs coach Mike Matera said. “They’re such a good group of kids.”
The Cubs closed out their summer with a 23-6 record and three tournament titles; they claimed a title in Delaware in June.
The Cubs’ season-ending, 10-game win streak stretches back to a Perfect Game tournament in Millville, where they didn’t perform up to expectations but won their last game there. Last week the Cubs went 4-0 to claim the Beat The Heat 14U White pool championship.
This week the team went 5-0 and grabbed another title — with nine players and not a single substitute.
“It’s kind of crazy if you think about it,” said Cubs starter Joe Vitale, who limited the Young Guns to three runs in 5⅔ innings and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. “We had two of our best players playing baseball in Georgia, and another player who’s injured, and he’s a pitcher so that would have helped.”
Vitale, a rising sophomore at Whippany Park, yielded three runs on six hits and one walk and he struck out two with a fastball, changeup and curveball.
“Joe has been one of our best guys all summer,” Matera said. “He pitched varsity as a freshman at Whippany Park so he had big game experience, but this was his first season in our program so we didn’t know much about him when we started nine weeks ago. But he competes, he’s got multiple pitches, and he’s certainly a big game guy.”
Matera said his belief in his short-handed club never wavered, even in the face of a weekend tournament where pitching depth is perhaps the most valuable asset a team can have.
“I knew that if the bracket broke a certain way we had the pitching lined up,” Matera said. “If that lined up, we had a chance to win this. It’s just if our defense shows up and our pitching works.”
The Cubs took the lead by scoring two runs in the top of the eighth inning after starting the frame under the California rule, where the bases are loaded with one out.
Joe Vitale of the Morris County Cubs was named 14U Red Boys of Summer MVP.
Joe Elko’s fielder’s choice grounder to short pushed Nick D’Amico home from third for the Cubs’ first run. North advanced to third on the play and scored on a balk with two out.
Dimitri Romer, a rising Ridge sophomore who came on in relief in the bottom of the sixth inning, immediately entered a pressure cooker of a game, where it seemed like every pitch was crucial. He was really feeling the heat in the eighth when it was his turn to start the inning with the bases loaded and one out.
“I was definitely feeling the pressure,” Romer said. “I had to take deep breaths and think about how great it would be to celebrate. When I was up there I was thinking, ‘You gotta get the job done.’ All my teammates were relying on me.”
Romer threw exactly one pitch in the eighth and induced a game-ending double play to clinch the Cubs’ second straight title. He pitched 2⅓ scoreless innings and retired all five batters he faced with two strikeouts.
“I love being under pressure because I know I can get the job done,” Romer said. “Joey really set me up to get in the right spot and I couldn’t let him down.”
North, who moved from second base to third when Romer relieved Vitale, said he was practicing his double play move in pre-inning warmups.
“In my mind I was thinking to myself at least three times before the inning, ‘I’m getting this play. I’m gonna step on third base and throw to first to get the double play,’ and I repeated it to myself and it happened,” said North, a rising freshman at West Morris Central. “I actually practiced it a couple times. It calmed me down and I knew what I had to do and I did it. I thank my first baseman (Matthew Sturgeon) for picking it because I two-hopped it.”
The Young Guns manufactured a bit of their own drama in the bottom of the sixth. Vitale got a comebacker for the first out, gave up a single to leadoff hitter Mike Fogarty, and induced another infield grounder for the second out.
On a 3-1 count from Vitale, Ty Siitonen lined a single into right center to drive in Fogarty and tie the game at 3-3.
The Cubs opened a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Elko chalked up an RBI groundout and Romer added a sacrifice fly.
The Young Guns inched back into a tie game with single runs in their first two at bats. In the first inning, Fogarty appeared to be thrown out at home – Sturgeon to Cubs catcher Matthew Zisa – but Fogarty was awarded home when it was ruled that Zisa obstructed Fogarty’s path while fielding Sturgeon’s throw.
The Young Guns tied the game at 2-2 in the second inning when Brendan Cohen blasted a double to left field, scoring Jack Brown from first.
The Cubs answered immediately by taking a 3-2 lead in the top of the third when Zisa plated Elko with an RBI triple to the deepest part of center field.
Vitale escaped a tough jam in the bottom of the fifth with Young Guns runners on first and third and two out. Mason Chambers broke for second, Vitale faked a throw to first and then wheeled to Romer at third, who tagged out Ashton Ray as he scrambled back to third.
For the Young Guns, Trev Herman pitched four innings and allowed three runs on two hits and five walks with one strikeout. Siitonen threw the final four innings and yielded two runs on no hits and one walk with three strikeouts.