Leo Reiser hit the first two home runs of his career over the weekend for the Morris County Cubs 10U.
By Sean Reilly
A heavy late-morning rainfall prevented a championship from being decided on Sunday at the 10U Williams Harley Davidson Tournament at Diamond Nation.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t any winners among the competitors. In fact, one player went home with a huge smile after having a memorable weekend in Flemington.
Leo Reiser, a pitcher/first baseman/third baseman for the Morris County Cubs, came to ‘The Nation’ having never hit a home run over a fence.
That changed on Saturday, when he cleared the fence in left-center field for a three-run blast as part of a 10-2 Cubs victory over FB Braves 10U White.
He returned with his team on Sunday morning to face the NY Prospects in another pool play contest. He went deep again, also over the fence in left center, as part of another 10-2 triumph.
“I hit my first home run ever yesterday and my second one today,” Reiser said. “It feels amazing. It was a great weekend.”
The Sunday victory completed a 2-1 tournament for the Cubs, who opened play with a 14-10 loss to the Dust Devils on Saturday.
The Dust Devils ended the weekend with a 3-0 record and a first-place finish in Pool B. They followed their win over the Cubs with a 26-8 decision over the NY Prospects on Saturday and a 14-0 triumph over FB Braves 10U on Sunday.
The NY Dynasty finished first in Pool A. The Dynasty started the tournament by sweeping two games on Saturday — a 6-3 win over Bobcats Black and a 16-6 triumph over Sticks Northeast 10U. They were then beaten by Grit 10 Black, 2-1, on Sunday, before the rain canceled the final.
The Dust Devils were making their 2023 debut at Diamond Nation over the weekend. The NY Dynasty was back in town after taking the April Fool’s Tournament championship on April 2.
For teams like the Cubs, the weekend continued a trend of steady improvement with the season still in its early stages. They also had a 2-1 finish at the King of the Diamond Tournament two weeks ago.
“We’re definitely getting better,” Reiser said. “We’ve improved overall with our fielding and hitting. At the beginning of the season, we were kind of nervous. Now we’re ready.”
That point was echoed by Mike Dzurilla, head coach of the Cubs.
“It was a good weekend,” he said. “The first game, we could have played a little better defense, but we came back and made it into a really good game. In the last two games, we played great. We came out today swinging well and Jaden Risden, our starting pitcher, threw strikes. We played great defense and it was a well-played 10U baseball game. They’re getting better and better and showing a lot of improvement.”