Tremendous pitching sent DJacks 16U Gold to four games sweep and 16U Grand Slam title.
By Rich Bevensee
There are ways of bouncing back from a poor tournament showing, but what Cam Glovas and the Diamond Jacks 16U Gold ballclub did this weekend is above and beyond what any baseball coach could possibly expect.
It didn’t sit very well with the players when the Diamond Jacks went winless in three games in their last weekend tournament. With unmeasured focus, the players used the last two weeks to iron out their flaws and make up for a lost weekend.
What the Diamond Jacks achieved in their most recent showing was nothing short of remarkable. In going unbeaten in four games, they allowed just two runs, recorded three shutouts and did not require the services of a reliever in any of those games.
Glovas put the finishing touches in this bounce-back effort for the Diamond Jacks, pitching a complete-game three-hitter in a 6-2, five-inning triumph over Stamford (Conn.) Travel Baseball in the 16U Grand Slam championship game on Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“The big thing was we came in with a clean slate, just trying to be better than last weekend,” Glovas said. “From the beginning of the tournament we were hitting the crap out of the ball. We clobbered everyone.”
The Diamond Jacks outscored their four opponents by a combined 38-2. Jacob Hamlin, Aidan Montesdeoca, Evan Gross and Glovas combined to chalk up a miniscule 1.09 ERA over 17 innings of tournament baseball. Montesdeoca pitched a five-inning no-hitter in the second game, an 8-0 pool play win over the Zoned RedHawks.
The Diamond Jacks also silenced Wladyka National, 14-0, and the NJ Bombers, 10-0, en route to the championship game.
“We didn’t use a single reliever and our four starters were awesome,” said first-year Diamond Jacks coach Jackson Ponzo who earned his first Diamond Nation trophy. He’s a 2020 Voorhees graduate who played his college ball at Centenary. “I’m super proud of them. To go from giving up a lot of runs in our last tournament and then we come here and shut everyone down? They were working hard at practice and that’s the result.”
Glovas, named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, pitched around three hits and four walks in the final and struck out eight. For the tournament he went 4-for-8 at the plate with two doubles, seven RBI and four runs scored.
Glovas’ performance in the championship game was even more impressive considering he had pitched just four innings in the entire fall season coming into the tournament.
Cam Glovas pitched a three-hitter in the final and hit .500 to earn MVP honors for the DJacks.
“He hit great all tournament, he was always on base and was making plays in the field,” Ponzo said. “And to pitch like that in a championship game when he hasn’t thrown that much this fall, that’s showing what kind of player he is.”
Judging by their performance in the Grand Slam event, the Diamond Jacks aren’t likely to return to a weekend like they had two weeks ago when they lost all three games in ‘The Nation’s’ Fall Fury tournament, to Wladyka National, 8-7, the South Jersey Young Guns, 6-4, and Iron Nine Red, 6-2.
“We were upset about our last tournament but we came together at practice and turned it around,” Montesdeoca said. “This weekend was one of our best weekends all year. It was a completely different mindset. We knew that as a team we weren’t meeting our standards. The big turnaround was coming together as a team and realizing we can’t win without each other.”
In the championship game, Stamford struck first when, in the top of the second inning, Leo Ovalles slapped an RBI single to left to score Michael Nguyen.
The Diamond Jacks quickly tied the game in the bottom of the frame thanks to an RBI groundout by Brady Schab.
Ponzo said his message to the pitchers during the team’s two-week break was simply to cut down on extended innings and limit offensive damage. Glovas, still steamed about giving up a run in the second, spoiling the Diamond Jacks’ weekend-long shutout bid, came back in the third to strike out the side.
“At first I was a little upset about giving up the run in the second inning,” Glovas said. “The fact that I came back out in the third inning and struck out the side pumped me up and kept me going the whole game.”
In the top of the fourth, Stamford once again took a one-run lead when Nguyen doubled into the left field corner to score Gavin Cooper.
“That was when I knew I had to lock in, bear down and get the next guy,” Glovas said. “Just find a way to get them out.”
The Diamond Jacks offense came around in the fourth inning to support Glovas.
With one out and the bases loaded and the Stamford infield drawn in, Montesdeoca hit a grounder which was misplayed, allowing Nick Zamrok to score from third and tie the game. After the righty-hitting Schab slapped a perfectly placed ball to right side on a hit-and-run to push Zamrok to third, Evan Gross singled to left to score Zamrok and give the Diamond Jacks their first lead of the game at 3-2.
Montesdeoca then scored on a wild pitch and Ryan Nigro drove in Gross with a sacrifice fly for a 5-2 Diamond Jacks lead.
The Diamond Jacks added one more run in the fifth on an Oliver Stokes RBI double. Glovas struck out the final two batters in the sixth to preserve the win as the Diamond Jacks improved to 6-4 on the fall.
“After our last tournament we weren’t mad at each other, we were just upset about how we played,” Glovas said. “We knew we had to improve. It started at practice one day and carried into the tournament.”
The pitching for Stamford (6-2) had done a solid job of quieting opposing bats in its first three games, allowing just five runs.
In the final, Brayden Daunais pitched two innings and allowed one run on one hit and two walks with one strikeout. Nguyen permitted four runs over 1⅓ innings on three hits and three walks with a strikeout. Ovalles yielded a run on one hit and two walks in the final two-thirds innings.