Ayden Fuentes scores for Centercourt Baseball on first-inning single by Mark Klusman.
By Sean Reilly
The game was on the line when Brenner Pourghassem stepped into the batter’s box for Centercourt Baseball 15U on Friday afternoon at Diamond Nation.
His team was down a run against Hustle Baseball 15U with two out in the top of the sixth inning. The play clock was at zero, and the tying run was at second.
Pourghassem singled to center on with a 1-1 count, and it scored Ayden Fuentes with the tying run in a game that ended in a 3-3 draw to open the 15U Boys of Summer tournament in Flemington
“I had to protect the plate,” Pourghassem said. “It was outside corner, and I just drove it the other way. I had to do something with it, at least foul it off.”
Instead, his line-drive single scored the run which enabled Centercourt to begin its weekend with a positive result.
Centercourt scored its other two runs in the top of the first.
Fuentes led off the game by drawing a full-count walk. Tyler Rich followed with a single to right field, and the runners advanced on a wild pitch before the next two batters were retired on a strikeout and foul out to first. Mark Klusman then had a 3-1 count before hitting a two-run single to right field.
Hustle Baseball used two walks and an infield single from Dylan Hazen to load the bases with two out in the bottom of the first. The inning ended, however, when Centercourt right fielder Mikey Militch made a diving catch in foul territory.
Hustle tied the game with two runs in the fourth. Elijah Kaiser led off with a full-count single to left, and moved to second on a balk. Bryce Ferguson was hit by a pitch and replaced by courtesy runner Cade Tuozzolo. A single to left from Dylan Hazen loaded the bases.
Dom Ammiano was up next, and with the infield playing in, he responded with a ground ball single into right field to score Kaiser.
The infield remained in as Frankee Berens stepped up, and he hit a ground ball to the second baseman that ended with an errant throw to the plate. Tuozzolo scored the tying run, while a second runner was tagged out at the plate while also trying to score. A strike out and pop out to the catcher kept the game tied.
Hustle Baseball took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
Andrew Testa led off by hitting a single that fell into shallow left field. He moved to second on a ground out to first, and advanced to third on a balk. Christian Cruz walked, and Tuozzolo hit an RBI single to center.
Centercourt’s tying rally in the sixth began when Fuentes singled to left with one out. After a strikeout, he stole second on the first pitch of Pourghassem’s at-bat.
Cade Tuozzolo takes off on steal of second for Hustle Baseball Academy.
Sam Cannizzaro was the next batter after the tying hit, and he lined a ball which could have been headed to the right-field corner, but was instead snared by high-reaching first baseman Peyton Reynolds for the third out.
Hustle started the bottom of the sixth with Ammiano reaching on an error, and after a strikeout, Reynolds walked to put runners on first and second. But Centercourt reliever Klusman got each of the next two batters to fly out to center to end the game.
Ferguson pitched the first four innings and Tuozzolo worked the last two for Hustle, allowing a combined five hits.
Klusman pitched 1⅔ hitless innings to close out the game for Centercourt, in relief of starter Rich (4 innings) and initial reliever Ben Glatt.
Kaiser and Hazen both ended 2-for-3 for Hustle, which has a Saturday twin bill against the TCS Blackhawks 15U and Diamond Jacks Gold 15U.
Centercourt also completes its pool play with two Saturday games, opposite the Diamond Jacks Gold 15U in the morning and TCS Blackhawks 15U in the afternoon.