By Sean Reilly
The Monmouth Liberty players made a vow after posing for their team picture upon winning the Fall Brawl 17/18U championship on Sunday afternoon at Diamond Nation.
“After we win, we said let’s do it again, same time tomorrow,” noted Liberty standout Danny Russo.
That’s because the Liberty was returning to ‘The Nation,’ to compete in the one-day Columbus Day Showdown. The Liberty earned that invite by going 3-0 and allowing only two runs at the Super Fall Invitational last month.
Following through on that Sunday pledge would be extremely difficult, because of the competition, and the enormous test that would be placed on the team’s pitching depth.
The Liberty played twice on Friday and once on Sunday to win the Fall Brawl. Capturing the Monday tournament would entail three more games.
The Liberty didn’t win all their games in either tournament, and on Monday, they nevertheless advanced to the final against NLB Mid-Atlantic Dando from Pennsylvania.
The Shore-based team also had two pitchers in reserve for the occasion. Jack Dufficy was lined up all weekend to start, and go as long as he could. Russo, his teammate at Christian Brothers Academy, was held back to finish off the job.
The plan worked to perfection, as Dufficy was strong through 4.1 innings and Russo allowed no runs in relief as the Liberty gained a 3-2, six-inning victory for the championship in Flemington.
The outcome wasn’t decided until the final pitch. NLB Mid-Atlantic had runners on second and third with two out in the bottom of the sixth, with a full count on the batter.
Russo induced a ground out to third base which ended the game, and gave the team a second Diamond Nation championship in as many days.
“It was a lot,” Russo said of the extended tournament weekend. “I’ve known since Friday that all the other guys would pitch in front of me. Jack is kind of our ace, and he was also saved the whole weekend for this. The plan was always for me to finish it out. His pitch count was around 90, and he kind of hit it a little early. I went out to warm up in the fourth inning, and was waiting to go in.”
Russo entered with one out in the bottom of fifth, with his team ahead 3-2 with a runner on first. He got a pop out to himself before issuing a walk. A fly ball was then caught by right-fielder Colin McGeehan, who had to battle a bright late-afternoon sun.
The one-run lead held into the bottom of the sixth, which was going to be the final half inning due to the expiration of the 1:50 game clock.
NLB was sending up the top of its order, and John Phillips led off by legging out a single to first base.
Michael Horvath also hit a grounder to the right side, where first baseman Danny Tsimbinos also had to deal with the sun to field the ball. He did, and threw to the shortstop in time for a force out at second base.
After a fly out to center field, Ben Weninger walked on a full count. A wild pitch moved the runners into scoring position before the game-ending grounder, with Zach Hampton fielding the ball at third and throwing it to Tsimbinos at first for the out.
“It was stressful,” Russo said. “I couldn’t really snap my curveball. My changeup was working, and you have to rely on what works in that scenario, so I was leaning on that. It feels awesome to win this. There was a lot to overcome. I have confidence in myself, and confidence that the guys behind me can pick me up if I make a mistake. We said ‘Same time tomorrow,” and we did it.”
Jack Dufficy of Monmouth Liberty and Tyler Sanders of NLB Mid-Atlantic are Columbus Day MVPs.
The Liberty scored all of their runs in the top of the first inning.
Hampton reached on a one-out walk, and moved to second on a wild pitch. Tsimbinos was up next, and launched his 3-for-3 game by hitting a grounds rule double to right field.
Connor Tongring reached on a two-base error that moved Tsimbinos to third. After a strikeout, R.T. Runge hit a two-run single to right field.
NLB Mid-Atlantic scored its runs in the fourth.
Ryan Rooney led off with a single to center. Phillips followed with a hit-and-run double, after his grounder past the vacated shortstop spot continued into space in left-center.
A strikeout followed, but Tyler Sanders walked to load the bases. Ben Weninger hit a one-run single to right before the next batter struck out on a full count.
The second run scored on a wild pitch before a ground out to shortstop ended the inning.
Dufficy was named MVP for his team. He threw 91 pitches, allowed three hits and totaled eight strikeouts against three walks.
“This was a challenge,” he said of the six-game stretch over four days. “I was itching to pitch the whole time. It felt good. I had a lot of trust in my fastball.”
Phillips was the starter for NLB Mid-Atlantic, and he allowed five hits and one earned run over 4.2 innings. He also struck out six while walking two.