RFH Bulldawgs first baseball Charlie Chubrik handles throw from third baseman Charlie Bonanno to retire Austin Mejia of Blue Collar Bulldogs.
By Sean Reilly
Sometimes a lack of knowledge about an opponent can be a very good thing.
Just ask Colin Padnes. He took the mound on Saturday morning at Diamond Nation for the Rumson-Fair Haven Diamond Dawgs against the Blue Collar Bulldogs from New York.
He did so having no idea that Blue Collar had only minutes earlier scored 21 runs in its pool play opener.
“I didn’t know,” he said. “That was probably good.”
Padnes shut down those potent Blue Collar bats over four innings, and it resulted in a 6-2 victory at the Spring Classic, Powered By Victus, in Flemington.
The outcome resulted in both teams going 1-1 in the opening pool play day at the tournament. While Blue Collar defeated the Proswing Grayhounds, 21-4, in its first game of the morning, Rumson Fair Haven lost, 9-6, to the Morris County Cubs 12U Navy.
No one wants to go winless in their first day of a tournament, and Padnes made sure that didn’t happen.
Pitching wise, he allowed one run on four hits through four innings, with seven strikeouts and one walk.
As the cleanup batter, he also hit an RBI double in the first inning and reached in his two other at-bats, on an error and fielder’s choice.
“This was good to get a win,” he said. “We just have to try and win tomorrow and make it to the playoffs.”
The Diamond Dawgs asserted themselves by taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the first over Blue Collar.
With one out, Owen Murphy singled to center field and Nick Thoms followed with a single to right. Padnes then doubled to left-center, scoring Murphy and sending Thoms to third.
Matt Kennedy was up next, and hit a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Diamond Dawgs extended their lead to 3-0 in the second inning. Lucas Daszkowski led off with a single to center, and took second on the throw back to the infield. He stole third, and scored on Charlie Chubrik’s ground out to first.
Nick Thoms of the RFH Bulldawgs advances to third on single by Matt Kennedy.
Padnes showed grit during the first three innings.
Blue Collar had a runner on second with two outs in the first inning, but a strikeout ended the threat.
Blue Collar also used a two-out double from Nico Matthews, followed by a single and advancement to second by Danny Koons, to put two in scoring position in the bottom of the second. Padnes got another strikeout to maintain the three-run lead.
Blue Collar also left a man on third in the bottom of the third.
“I was trying to not be afraid to let them score,” Padnes said. “I was working on hitting the corners. I was trying to use my curve as much as I could. I also couldn’t change the way I was pitching when they had those runners on.”
Blue Collar closed to 3-1 when Johan Rumaldo hit a home run to left field with one out in the fourth. A strikeout and pop to shortstop prevented further damage.
Blue Collar made it closer when Jack Kurland led off the fifth inning against the RFH bullpen with a home run to center field on a 0-2 pitch. But the next three batters were retired.
The Diamond Dawgs pulled away by scoring three times in the sixth.
Sending up the top of its order, James Harvey drew a walk and stole second. Murphy, who went 2-for-3, followed with an RBI double to right-center.
A ground out from Thoms advanced Murphy to third, and after a pitching change, Padnes hit a grounder to shortstop with the infield playing in that nabbed Murphy at the plate.
Padnes was safe at first, stole second, and took off for third after a passed ball. An error on a throw to the base allowed him to score.
Kennedy, who ended 2-for-2 along with the sacrifice fly, tripled to right field and scored the final run on a wild pitch.