By Rich Bevensee
Pitchers are tasked with locating certain pitches in crucial situations in nearly every appearance. Executing those pitches, however, is far from a certainty, which is why the Locked In Baseball Expos 16U ballclub values a talent like Aiden Nugent.
Shortly after his team took the lead, Nugent navigated out of bases-loaded jams in back-to-back innings by combining exceptional control and an unyielding resolve which few hurlers possess.
His effort in the third and fourth innings allowed the third-seeded Expos to maintain their lead and eventually secure a 6-2 victory over the top-seeded Tinton Falls Diamondbacks in the 16U championship game of the Fall Harvest Powered By Cortes and Hay on Sunday afternoon at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“I like to pitch more when there’s no one on base, of course, but I feel like I’m a different pitcher with guys on base,” said Nugent, a 6-2 righthander who is a sophomore at Seton Hall Prep. “When I’m trying to get out of a jam I’m trying to stay confident. I gotta’ dial in and make sure I don’t give up any runs.”
The Diamondbacks entered the final as the only team to wade through the 16U pool 3-0, scoring 27 runs in three games.
But Nugent and lefty Andrew Summa combined to hold the Diamondbacks scoreless over the final five innings in propelling the Expos (4-1) to their second Diamond Nation tournament title of the fall in their final appearance of the season.
The Expos, coached by John Hornung, won the Slugfest title Sept. 10 and bowed to Diamond Jacks Gold in the Grand Slam final Sept. 30.
“With this team, the depth is like I’ve never seen before,” Hornung said. “We can have three guys out, four guys out, it just doesn’t matter. The next guy in is just as good as the last guy.
“It’s very rare to play five games in two days and have the caliber of arms that we had left. And if we needed to go one more, we had another guy ready to go.”
Expos catcher Anthony Palumbit, a sophomore at Roxbury, was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament. He reached safely 11 times in 16 at bats this weekend and caught all but two innings of the Expos’ five games.
Palumbit went 1-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and a run scored in the championship game.
“I’d say chemistry is the biggest reason we win,” Palumbit said. “Everybody backs each other up on everything. We have a bad outcome, we always have someone in the dugout picking you up, making sure your head’s not down. Everyone always has energy.”
Expos catcher Anthony Palumbit was named Fall Harvest 16U MVP.
Nugent would need that energy in the bottom of the third after the Expos rallied for three runs and a 4-2 lead in the top half of the inning.
Nugent walked three straight batters to load the bases after retiring the first two, then got a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
In the fourth, Nugent’s resolve was in play once more after surrendering hits to three of the first four batters. Nugent buckled down with a strikeout and he induced a soft infield liner to escape his second straight jam.
Palumbit, who calls pitches when he’s behind the plate, said Nugent’s two-seam fastball and slider are his two most effective pitches when he has to get an out. Nugent also mixes in a four-seam fastball and a curveball, but relies on the slider and two-seam for sure outs.
“When he’s confident in a pitch and he wants that pitch there, he’ll locate that, and when he locates his pitch, they can’t hit it,” Palumbit said. “He hits his spots like a big leaguer. He’s perfect. When he’s in trouble, he gets himself out of it – like a big leaguer.
“When he has to have an out it’s the two-seamer. It comes in and I barely see it, too. I just put my glove out and hope.”
The Expos trailed 2-1 in the third when Palumbit singled to center with one out and Logan Costello on second base. Costello slowed as he approached third but the ball rabbit-hopped over the center fielder, allowing Costello to score.
“I’ve been struggling with the bat a little bit the last couple weeks,” Palumbit said. “I decided to simplify everything and just have fun for once, instead of taking it so seriously, and just ball out.”
The Expos also took advantage of a brief lack of control by D-Backs pitcher Pete Denicola in the third, as Summa was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Gavin Bucceri scored from third on a wild pitch for a 4-2 Expos lead.
Denicola collected himself well enough to pitch two scoreless innings before giving way to Eli Gonzalez. In five innings Denicola allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits and three walks with six strikeouts.
The Expos tacked on two more runs in the seventh with an extra base attack. No. 10 hitter Mason Alameda tripled to left with one out and scored on a Costello single. Costello advanced to third on an outfield error and scored when the next batter, Drew Aromondo, tripled to right.
Nugent threw 75 pitches over his four innings of work and allowed two runs on six hits and three walks with five strikeouts. Summa did not allow a hit in his three scoreless innings of relief work. He began a 1-6-3 inning-ending double play in the fifth and struck out one.
For the Diamondbacks, Gonzalez allowed two runs on three hits in two innings with one walk and a hit batsman.
The Diamondbacks took advantage of the quirks of baseball to score twice on three straight hits in the second inning for a 2-1 lead.
With one out, Dominic Golembieski beat out an infield single with a slow chopper to third. He scored when Zach Ercolino drilled a liner which deflected off the glove of Expos third baseman Luke Brendle, who dove for the ball and redirected it into left center while Ercolino scrambled for a triple. With the infield drawn in, Gonzalez slapped a grounder through the left side to drive in Ercolino.