By Rich Bevensee
It’s not just one aspect of baseball which has driven the Diamond Jacks Super 12U squad to multiple tournament titles this spring and summer.
It can’t be just one thing, not when the team is winning 81 percent of its games.
What really drives this young Diamond Jacks squad is that on most days they possess all the elements of what coaches preach to kids from the moment they first set foot on a diamond.
Case in point: The Beat The Heat 12U championship game on Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
Right-hander Ryan Nigro pitched a two-hitter and faced just two batters over the minimum. Tim “Timmy Buckets” Donahue made two sensational catches in center field to anchor an errorless defense.
And Tyler LaGanga blasted two opposite field homers while Ian Peros and Josh Labrador went yard as well to send the Diamond Jacks to a 9-1 victory over the Locked In Baseball Expos and the team’s fourth Diamond Nation tournament championship of the season.
Besides the basics – pitching, defense and hitting – Donahue said there is a fourth element which is critical to their success.
“I think it’s the energy,” Donahue said. “Even if we’re down we have great energy. For example, in our game yesterday we were down and we came back, and it was all because of great energy.”
Donahue was referring to his team’s 5-4 pool victory over Team Francisco Notorious 9 Select, a crucial win which helped the Diamond Jacks advance to the title game. The Diamond Jacks, trailing 4-3 in the top of the sixth, loaded the bases with two out before Drew Pietrowski lined a two-run single up the middle for the game-winning runs
Pietrowski, still glowing from that clutch hit, shared tournament MVP honors with Logan Koziupa.
“That felt really good. It was the first time in a while I was in that situation,” Pietrowski said. “The best part was watching my teammates go nuts. Even if you make a bad play in the field you can make up for it and you bring your team’s hopes up.”
Maybe that’s what LaGanga was thinking going into the final. He was feeling low after going hitless in his team’s final pool play game, a 3-2 loss to the Proswing Grayhounds.
But he didn’t stay low for long. In the top of the first, after Nigro doubled and Nate McGann drove in the team’s first run with a groundout, LaGanga drove a 2-2 pitch the opposite way over the right field fence for a two-run homer and a 3-0 Diamond Jacks lead.
In the second inning, lefty hitting Josh Labrador, batting in the No. 11 hole, went opposite field as well, launching a ball over the left field fence for a three-run blast and his fifth homer of the season.
Two batters later, leadoff hitter Ian Peros drove a fastball over the center field fence for his 10th homer of the season and a 7-0 Diamond Jacks lead.
Expos coach Angel Concepcion saw his team score 41 runs in three pool play games prior to the final. But he said the Diamond Jacks’ homer frenzy and seven-run flurry in the first two innings left his offense flat.
Logan Koziupa and Drew Pietrowski shared Beat The Heat MVP honors for the DJacks Super 12U.
“That seven runs in two innings kind of killed us, and the kid on the mound was good,” Concepcion said. “What I felt today was the energy went down when they scored those seven runs. After that we held them to two runs in four innings, which is pretty good, but we couldn’t keep up.”
Expos’ reliever Dylan Milano tried to resuscitate his team with a looong, solo home run to left in the bottom of the second. But Nigro was stubborn to the end, allowing just one more baserunner, when Ivan Perez doubled in the sixth.
“After the home run I just laughed and shook it off,” Nigro said. “I laughed because I knew that run didn’t mean anything. It happens. It’s baseball. It’s gonna happen.
“I felt good, better than usual,” said Nigro, who did not allow a walk and struck out five. “I wasn’t nervous about pitching in the championship. You just gotta go in there and pitch and trust your defense, and treat it like any other game.”
LaGanga wasn’t finished supporting Nigro’s effort. Leading off the top of the sixth, the righty-hitting LaGanga lofted yet another opposite field shot, this time clanging one off the upper left corner of the scoreboard in right center field for his 15th homer of the season.
The Diamond Jacks Super 12U home run crew, from left, Ian Peros, Tyler LaGanga and Josh Labrador.
The Diamond Jacks’ third homer of the game had the players shouting their season-long mantra, “It’s all goodie in the hoodie.”
“I was mad about not getting a hit in the game before,” LaGanga said of the loss to Proswing. “This time all I was thinking was, don’t freak out.”
The Diamond Jacks raised their spring/summer record to 39-9-1, and 35-8 at Diamond Nation.
It was the Diamond Jacks seventh appearance in the Diamond Nation playoffs in 11 tournaments and their fourth championship. They also won the Spring Invitational (March 17), King Of The Diamond (April 14), and the Diamond Nation Youth World Series (July 8).