When the NY Gothams’ starting pitcher didn’t have it against Hustle Baseball in the 15U Mid-Summer Classic championship game on Sunday night at Diamond Nation, righthander Cesareo Medina stepped in, stemmed the bleeding and saved the day.
Medina shut out Hustle Baseball on two hits over seven innings, struck out seven, walked none and hit a batter, allowing the Gothams to rally from the 4-1 deficit their pitcher inherited on the way to a 7-4 victory and the tournament championship. The Gothams tied the game with a run in the top of the sixth and pulled away with three runs in the seventh.
Medina was named the 15U Mid-Summer Classic Most Valuable Player.
“I told our starter to give me as much as you can,” said NY Gothams coach Gabe Garcia. “But we had to go to Cesareo early and he said he was ready. We didn’t know how much we’d get out of Cesareo but he kept getting outs.”
It was a particularly frustrating loss for Hustle Baseball (3-1), which surrendered seven runs despite allowing just one hit. But Hustle Baseball committed an uncustomary six errors and its three pitchers issued eight walks enroute to permitting four unearned runs.
Lefthander Jayden Berraquera, however, was very effective for Hustle Baseball, permitting four runs, but just two earned, on one hit over 5.2 innings. He struck out six and two of his four walks were issued to the last two batters he faced. Neither scored. The one at bat that hurt Berraquera was a two-out, two-run run single by Alex Sierra in the fourth that drew the Gothams within 4-3.
Sierra had a monster tournament and could easily have been the MVP if not for Medina’s remarkable effort in relief.
“Alex had that big two-run double and closed out our semifinal win,” said Garcia. The Gothams (4-1) rallied late in the semifinal, too, against Wladyka Continental, scoring two in the sixth inning to tie the game at 7-7 and getting three more runs in the top of the seventh to win it, 10-7.
It appeared the Gothams may have been out of pitching when Hustle Baseball struck for four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 4-1 lead. Hustle Baseball already had three runs in, the bases loaded and still no outs when Garcia called on Medina. The righty allowed a sac fly by Pat Brenna before inducing an inning-ending double play to get out of the jam.
The big blow in Hustle Baseball’s first inning rally was Berraquero’s three-run double to left-center field. Courtesy runner Dom Castiglia would score on the sac fly. The Gothams had scored a run in the top of the first on two Hustle Baseball errors.
Berraquera was mostly untouched until creating a problem for himself in the fourth when he issued back-to-back walks to Louis Jordan and Jason Hernandez to start the inning. But he struck out the next two batters on curveballs to seemingly right the ship. But Sierra erased those good feelings quickly with his shot into the gap that shaved the deficit to 4-3.
The Gothams tied the game in the sixth when Berraquera should have had a 1-2-3 inning. But Jon LeGrande led off and raced all the way to second base when his short fly to left field was misplayed. First baseman Dylan Berger then made a great 3-4 assist charging in on Jordan’s sac bunt before Hernandez brought LeGrande home with the tying run on a bouncer to third.
The Gothams’ rally in the seventh was a microcosm of the game. Four walks, an error on a fielder’s choice grounder and a wild pitch would account for the three-run rally that built a 7-4 lead for Medina.
“I had them off balance with my curveball and I was getting my slider in there, too,” said Medina. “I was a little tired in the last inning but I was just trying to take it home.”
The Gothams outscored their tournament opponents 47-28. Hustle Baseball had a 28-10 runs advantage on their opponents.