Rodriguez walks it off for East Coast Elite 17U in Top 25 Showcase

By DN WRITING STAFF | August 13, 2024

Miguel Ovalles crossed the plate with the winning run for East Coast Elite.

By Rich Bevensee

One team was coming off a two-week layoff, the other was playing its ninth game in four days.

After an incredibly well-pitched ball game came down to the final at bat, the team pedaling on its last ounce of steam enjoyed the last laugh. 

Marvin Rodriguez singled up the middle with one out to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning and give East Coast Elite Baseball 2025 a walk-off 1-0 victory over Spring Ford Baseball Club in the Super 17 Top 25 Showcase on Monday evening at Diamond Nation in Flemington. 

East Coast, which won its ninth straight, was coming off a 4-0 weekend and a tournament title claimed in Schenectady, N.Y. Coach Carlos Diaz said the players arrived back home at 2 a.m. Monday morning.

“I was tired but I had all the adrenaline rushing through me, seeing a runner on first and second,” said Rodriguez, a rising senior at Cardinal Spellman in the Bronx. “I had to put the ball in play and find a way on. Thank God I got a barrel on it and put it in the gap and won the game.”

Rodriguez’ hit was just the fifth of the game in a contest dominated by pitching. East Coast righty Neylin Navarro, a rising senior at St. Joseph of Montvale and a Fairleigh Dickinson commit, and lefty Jovani Segarra, a rising senior at Mahopac (N.Y.) combined to permit just three Spring Ford hits. 

For Collegeville, Pa.-based Spring Ford, Nate Romberger, a recent graduate of the Perkiomen School in Pennsburg, Pa., went the distance  and allowed one hit going into the bottom of the seventh inning. 

Miguel Ovalles led off the East Coast half of the seventh by singling to left field on the first pitch he saw, and he tagged up and raced to second when Angel Quiles flew out to deep center. Tyler Older squibbed a slow grounder down the third base line which went for an infield single.

On an 0-1 count, Rodriguez delivered the game winner, a line drive through the middle which allowed Ovalles to score from second. 

Rodriguez said it was the second-biggest hit of his career. This past spring playing for Cardinal Spellman, he hit an RBI triple against Mount St. Michael to tie the game and stole home for a walk-off victory.  

“Marvin has had some big hits so I was happy to see him in that spot,” Diaz said. “I was trying to get us to where we were at, playing a little small ball, and he delivered.”

The celebration on the field didn’t look like the boys had just finished their ninth game in four days. 

“We built them strong,” Diaz said. “This is what they want. We expect them to compete and that’s what they did.”

“We love playing baseball so it’s just another day doing the job,” Segarra said. “It’s probably our best win of the season.”

An inning earlier Segarra sidestepped Spring Ford’s last scoring threat. 

In the top of the sixth Segarra issued two-out walks to Luke Pufko and Jasyon Ehrhart, giving Spring Ford a runner in scoring position for the first time since the first inning. But Segarra got a strikeout looking to escape danger.

After pitching two innings two days earlier, Segarra threw three scoreless innings and improved to 6-0. He allowed one hit and three walks. 

“My arm was a little sore so I just stretched a little more,” Segarra said. “I just tried to hit my spots. I don’t throw as hard as a lot of these kids but if I  hit my spots I know my fielders will make the plays. When the pressure’s on, it feels so good when you complete the game.”

Nate Romberger beats out an infield hit for Spring Ford.

Segarra was the perfect complement to East Coast starter Navarro, who reached 86 on the radar gun and pitched four shutout innings, yielding two hits and three walks and striking out six.

Like Segarra, Navarro had to pitch out of a jam, as he faced trouble immediately after taking the mound. Spring Ford’s Daniel Palmieri singled and Ryan Fields walked to lead off the game, and after a strikeout they pulled off a double steal with one out. Navarro relied on his fastball to strike out the next two batters. 

“Neylin kept us in the game and Jovani nailed it down for us,” Diaz said. “Jovani pitched two days ago. Luckily we were using him toward the end of the game because I don’t know how much more he could have pitched. He came up big.”

Romberger went home as the tough luck loser after allowing four hits and two walks with four strikeouts. 

“He hasn’t pitched for two weeks so to come off two weeks and throw that kind of effort out there, it’s great,” Spring Ford coach Scott Wible said. “It shows the kind of kid he is.” 

Wible said there was only minor consideration for taking Romberger out to give East Coast a different look.

“It definitely crossed my mind,” Wible said. “He’s throwing a one-hitter in a 0-0 ballgame, and they had maybe one guy at second. He was rolling right along. It’s just unfortunate, that last inning.

“He was getting close to 90 pitches but it wasn’t a pitch count thing. It was more, ‘Do we throw something different at them?’ It’s a tough situation to take a kid out. I would take that every day. Unfortunately our bats didn’t show up. I think the two week layoff kind of showed.”

East Coast continues its Super 25 week by playing USA Prime Northeast 17U on Tuesday before playoff seeds are determined. Spring Ford will face Wild Athletics on Tuesday.

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