Christopher Knelly legs out a ground ball for RCS Warpath.
By Rich Bevensee
Kevin Whelehan is the varsity baseball coach at Hilton High, located in Hilton, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. John LaPenna is a rising junior at Victor High, a Hilton rival.
Because they have crossed paths in high school competition, Whelehan is well aware of LaPenna’s skill set, which includes bunting and speed. LaPenna now plays for Whelehan and the Rochester Brewers 16U club team, and their confluence could not have played out more perfectly on Thursday evening at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
The Brewers were clinging to a two-run lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with no outs and runners on first and third against RCS Warpath Gold of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The Brewers sent LaPenna to the plate for one thing, and LaPenna was more than happy to comply. Whelehan called for a squeeze bunt which LaPenna laid down beautifully, and the perfectly-timed play allowed Cameron McCarville to slide in safely at home with another insurance run.
That single play not only scored an important run in what was a dazzling pitcher’s duel, it seemed to deflate the players from RCS. The end result was a 3-0 Brewers victory in pool play in the Northeast Championship at ‘The Nation.’
“I just had a hunch,” Whelehan said. “He (LaPenna) is a good bunter, and we had two very good baserunners (McCarville and Kamden Whelahan, the coach’s son), two guys who played for me in high school so they know what’s coming.”
“During school ball we relied on a lot of small ball so I’m really used to bunting,” LaPenna said. “When I saw that sign I was pretty excited to put it down. I’m thinking I need to put it down on the line tight, I need to get down the baseline and I need to trust my teammate that he’ll get there in time.
“That was a crucial run. I think it really shows how teams can bring out a small play and create a really big play.”
The Brewers and RCS both finished with 3-1 pool play records. So did Blue Sox Baseball Navy and the Rams Baseball Club. Based on tiebreakers, the Blue Sox will host Rochester in the 16U championship game on Friday at 12:15 p.m.
The beneficiary of such fine execution was Brewers righty Max Marsocci, a rising junior at Byron-Bergen High in Bergen, N.Y. Marsocci, a 5-10, 145-pound righty, pitched five shutout innings while allowing RCS just one hit and two walks.
“I felt really good today,” said Marsocci, who employed a fastball, slider and curveball and finished with a 67-pitch gem. “I did more stretching than I normally do, I stayed loose throughout the day and drank a lot of water.”
Marsocci allowed just one baserunner to reach scoring position, in the fourth inning when Landon Trout, Marsocci’s counterpart on the mound, singled, stole second and took third on a wild pitch with one out. Marsocci induced a couple of line drive outs to right field to escape damage.
Even with Marsocci cruising, Benjamin Wabnitz came on in relief and pitched the final two scoreless innings for Rochester, striking out four while permitting just two hits and one walk.
“That was our pitching coach’s call,” Whelhan said of assistant coach Shaun Caveny, the current varsity coach at Pittsford Mendon in Pittsford, N.Y. “They were going through their order for the third time so we made the switch.”
With Trout doing a very good job of not allowing the Brewers to build extended rallies, it was not lost on Marsocci how well his teammates performed with clutch, situational hitting.
“I think we did really well playing small ball,” Marsocci said. “We ran the bases well and got in their heads.”
RCS coach John Petrikyak said he anticipated a small-ball tactic from the Brewers with runners on second and third with none out in the fifth.
Elijah Sussman had a key sacrifice fly for the Brewers in the fourth inning.
“We are a fantastic defensive ballclub. We preach defense, defense, defense,” said Petrikyak, whose team committed two fielding errors. “We knew run differential was a determining factor (in making the playoffs) and giving up that run on the bunt was going to affect us. Mental errors hurt us today. Some bad baseball.”
The Brewers picked up their first two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Camden Kennedy led off with a walk and moved to second on a passed ball. Mark Luciano moved him over with a bunt single and stole second. Wabnitz drove in Kennedy with an infield groundout for the game’s first run, and Elijah Sussman made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly to bring home Luciano.
RCS brought the tying run to the plate in the sixth against Wabnitz, as Trout walked and Collin Shannon singled with two out. Wabnitz got the final out with a strikeout.
Marsocci and Wabnitz were the benefactors of some exceptional, error-free defense, especially in the first two innings.
In the first, RCS leadoff man Teague Stahovic chopped a ball up the middle where Brewers shortstop McCarville ran it down and threw off-balance to first baseman Sussman, who made a great pick to finish the play.
In the second, LaPenna made a dazzling diving catch in center field, laying out for a dying liner hit by Eli Zapotosky. The very next batter, Jordan DiPinto, hit a sizzler through the middle but second baseman Jack Rutledge slid to knock it down and get the assist.
“We put baseballs in play today and they played some great defense,” Petrikyak said.
Whelehan said it was a necessary all-around effort for the Brewers, who were looking for some encouraging baseball following a 9-3 loss to the Out Of The Park Cyclones Prospects on Wednesday.
“Especially after yesterday we had to bounce back from a loss,” said Whelehan, who just completed his sixth high school season at Hilton. “We talked to the kids yesterday about playing good baseball after a loss. Tonight the pitching was awesome, defense was awesome, we had timely hitting and we played some small ball. Good game.”
Trout pitched well in defeat for RCS, named for Russ Canzer Sports. Canzler is a former Major League ballplayer who owns and operates the year-round player development program.
Trout yielded three runs on seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts in five innings. Shannon pitched a three-up, three-down sixth inning.