Brady Roth of RCBC Ghost 16U American launched this pitch for a solo home run in the fourth inning.
By Rich Bevensee
After sitting out an entire high school baseball season, A.J. Mirto has been anxious to return to his normal routine this summer with the Richmond County Baseball Club Ghost 16U American ballclub.
But don’t be deceived by the layoff. Judging by how he performed in his last game in June, he looks as though he never missed a single inning.
Mirto went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, four RBI and two runs scored from the bottom of the Ghost batting order to lead RCBC to a 10-3 pool play victory over Monmouth Liberty Baseball Club in the 16U Summer Classic Powered by Pure Rush Shades on Sunday at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
Mirto is a rising senior at Tottenville High in Staten Island. He sat out the spring baseball season because he transferred from Moore Catholic, also in Staten Island.
RCBC had two pool play games on Saturday. Mirto, batting 10th in coach Joe Rubino’s 11-man order, had a base hit in the team’s first pool game, an 8-8 tie against Flores Braves National, and sat out a 5-2 loss to Iron Nine.
Obviously, against Monmouth, Mirto rewarded Rubino for putting him back into the order.
“No matter where I am in the order, I gotta’ see the ball and hit it. Wherever I am, I just have to do my job,” Mirto said. “I feel like every time you get up late in the order, there’s always someone on, so you gotta do your job and drive ‘em in.”
Rubino, who has known Mirto for five years, said watching MIrto hit against Monmouth almost made him reconsider his batting lineup for RCBC’s next game.
“I was actually thinking about moving him up but he seems to be hitting in that spot,” Rubino said. “If he’s hitting like that, I try to put some guys who can run ahead of him, kind of like a second leadoff guy, so he can drive them in.
Jack Russo is all smiles after his solo homer in the second inning for Monmouth Liberty.
“I’m really proud of him. Today was good to see.”
RCBC’s Brady Roth blasted a solo home run, leadoff man Miles LaMere went 2-for-4 with a double, while Rob Petrarca and Brian Dougherty each had a pair of hits. Ian Thaisz, Matt Clark and Matthew Marco each had an RBI.
RCBC pitchers Jake Rubino (2⅔ innings), Eli Santana (2⅓) and Clark (2) did a superb job keeping LIberty runners off the bases, combining to surrender just five hits and three walks over seven innings.
That recipe helped Ghost exit ‘The Nation’ with a win after going 0-1-1 over its previous three games.
“We worked on a lot this week, a lot of defensive plays,” Rubino said. “We’re not a team that can make mistakes and win. We have to play a clean game. They did a nice job today.”
RCBC finished 1-1-1 for the weekend, not quite enough to figure into the top five in the 16U pool and earn a berth in the Top 25 Showcase in August.
For Monmouth, which went 1-2 over the weekend, Jack Russo homered and drove in two runs. John Trotte (2 innings), Jake Dougherty (4) and Casey Lillis (1) handled the pitching for Liberty
Monmouth crept to within 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth when Lucas Grigos scored from third on a two-out infield error.
But RCBC blew the game open with a five-run seventh. Marco had a pinch-hit RBI single, Mirto rocked a three-run double, and Thaisz had an RBI single.