By Rich Bevensee
For five innings, the Out Of The Park Cyclones 15U Futures looked lifeless against Ghost 845 righthander Sage Caesar.
That feeling carried over into the seventh inning, where the Cyclones were one strike away – twice – from leaving the game with a runner-up trophy.
But momentum has a funny way of reversing its course.
Down to their final out and trailing by three runs, the Cyclones’ last three batters in the bottom of the order reached base, Brad Bateman slapped a two-run single to give his team the lead, and the Cyclones fought back to claim a 7-4 victory over Ghost to claim the 15U Slugfest title on Sunday afternoon at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“It’s definitely an exciting feeling,” Bateman said. “We’ve had a bunch of wins but we haven’t been able to get over the hump and win a championship.”
“I’m proud of the kids because they hung in there,” Cyclones coach Travis Zilg said. “They’re not used to this, so this was good for them to find a way to come back. It wasn’t pretty but they found a way.”
Jack Liebensperger, named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, pitched a seven-inning shutout against BC Cyclones Red in a 7-0 pool play win on Saturday and tied for the Cyclones’ team lead with five hits for the weekend.
“This championship means a lot,” Liebensperger said. “We’ve made the playoffs a lot but haven’t been able to get over the hump and win the championship. I think we had a lot of momentum from the first day when we went 2-0 against some decent teams.”
Caesar was peerless for five innings, holding the Cyclones to a run on three hits and two walks. At one point he retired 10 straight batters, a streak which ended with two outs in the fourth when Andrew Schmeider singled and Vincent Donofrio drove him in with a double to right.
Cam Singleton relieved Caesar and pitched a scoreless sixth.
Then, in the top of the seventh, the Cyclones took advantage of not having to face Caesar anymore, scoring six runs on three hits and four walks, all with two out.
“That Sage kid is a good arm,” Zilg said. “We’re not used to that caliber of pitching. Once he came out, that was key for us and we took advantage of it.”
Liebensperger, batting sixth in the order, was the first Cyclone to reach in the seventh inning when he walked and took second on a balk.
With two out, Cipriano Panzarella and Michael Fernicola both walked to load the bases. With Thatcher Bower at the plate, Singleton balked to force home Liebensperger, bringing the Cyclones within 4-2.
Bowe singled through the middle to score Panzarella to get the Cyclones within a run. Leadoff hitter Lucas Bolton was intentionally walked and Bateman, the team’s No. 2 hitter, fought off an inside pitch at 3-1 and dumped it into right center to score two and give the Cyclones a 5-4 lead and send his dugout into a frenzy.
“I was trying to put a ball in play, trying to knock in the winning run, not trying to do too much, and get a good pitch to hit and take advantage of it,” Bateman said. “I was a little nervous but I got up in the count and it allowed me to relax a little bit.”
Schmieder roped a double to the right field wall to drive in two more runs for the final margin.
The Cyclones’ dugout was pretty quiet to begin the seventh, but the roar began to build with each batter reaching base.
“It was the guys at the bottom of the order who stepped up and turned the lineup over,” Bateman said. “We got some momentum and took advantage of it.”
“It all changed as soon as the top of the lineup came up,” Liebensperger said. “The bottom did their job and got on base, and when we got back to the top, that’s when we did it.”
For Bateman, the drama wasn’t over just yet. After surrendering a run in the sixth, he returned to the bump to preserve the Cyclones’ lead in the bottom of the seventh.
Singleton reached on an infield error with one out but Bateman got the final two outs with a strikeout looking and a groundout.
Cyclones pitcher/outfielder Jack Liebensperger was named the 15U Slugfest MVP.
“I’m not a strikeout pitcher and I don’t pitch a ton so I was just trying to throw strikes,” Bateman said.
Bateman may have taken his inspiration for pitching from Liebensperger, who said he feels he has finally turned the corner on the hill.
“My hitting has been pretty good – I think I hit around .350 all summer – but my pitching has been all over the zone,” Liebensperger said. “On Saturday I was able to throw a lot of strikes. To go out there and throw seven innings of strikes means a lot. It was just getting through those first three innings and realizing if I kept going I’ll have momentum behind me. If they hit, I can throw strikes and get us through the game.”
It is probably small consolation for Ghost, a strong team from the Mid-Hudson Valley area in southeastern New York, to reach the championship game considering how heartbreaking the final score was. Nevertheless, there is some merit in the fact that Ghost reached a championship game in just the second weekend of the fall season after playing to a 10-14 record this summer.
Caesar got his team on the board first with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning, a bloop which dropped inside the right field line to score T.J. Muhlfeld.
In the second, Ghost extended its lead to 3-0. Finn Pearson reached on an infield error and eventually scored on an outfield error on Cole Campbell’s fly ball. Then Tyler Maus drove in Brady Schuerer with a two-out infield single, a bases-loaded grounder up the middle where D.J. Koller beat the throw to second, allowing Schuerer to score.
After Donofrio cut the Cyclones’ deficit to 3-1 in the fourth, Ghost added another insurance run in the sixth when Maus had a bases-loaded RBI groundout.