Sportika’s Weston Gonzalez plays limbo with an inside pitch against North Jersey Diamondbacks.
By Rich Bevensee
Charlie Bilezikjian has high hopes this spring for his Sportika Baseball Academy 14U squad, but his team was facing a triple threat of disadvantages when it took the field Saturday morning.
For starters, it was Sportika’s season opener, so first game jitters were evident. Secondly, the game began at 8 a.m., which means most of the players rose from bed about an hour earlier than they would for school. And third, the game time temperature at Diamond Nation in Flemington was a brisk 35 degrees.
With these factors in play, Sportika was unable to rev its engines in its season opener and got blanked by Out Of The Park Cyclones Futures. The good news for Bilezikjan and Sportika was the team developed a short memory and very quickly rebounded in the afternoon with its first victory of the spring.
Weston Gonzalez went 2-for-2 with a triple and two RBI, Matt Masek pitched 1⅓ innings of scoreless relief, and Sportika walloped North Jersey Diamondbacks Prime, 13-3, in Easter Extravaganza pool play at ‘The Nation.’
“This morning they just beat us in energy,” Gonzalez said. “It was pretty brutal getting out of bed at 5 o’clock, an hour earlier than I do for school, so it was pretty hard to get ready. This morning we weren’t awake, but in this game we were wide awake and excited.”
“Effort and energy were much better than the first game,” said Bilezikjian, whose team was beaten by OOTP, 8-0. “We were kind of sleepwalking through the first game. Afterward we had a pep talk. I gave them time to think if that’s the product they want to put on the field. I let them do a little soul searching. This time the energy was there and the dugout was lively. It was like a complete team effort.”
Sportika was also the benefactor of patient at bats, as they drew 14 walks and scored five of its runs from bases-loaded walks.
Gonzalez fed a three-run rally in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI single, and his RBI triple in the fourth fueled another three-run rally which helped end the game by virtue of the mercy rule just as the 1 hour, 50 minute game clock expired.
Gonzalez said he began hitting the gym in the winter in order to get stronger in the batter’s box, and he’s beginning to feel the benefits with every swing.
“I feel like I got way stronger and it helped my confidence,” Gonzalez said. “I feel way more confident now and I feel like I can hit the ball harder.”
Joey Clemente kicked things off for the Diamondbacks with an RBI groundout in the first, but Sportika quickly evened the score when R.J. Lillis did the same in the bottom of the inning. Lillis’ RBI was followed by run-scoring singles from Gonzalez and Danny Konego for a 3-1 lead.
J.T. Timony rounds third after belting a double earlier for North Jersey Diamondbacks Prime.
The Diamondbacks bounced back to tie the score in their next at bat when Mason Esposito had an RBI single and Jack Usnick lofted a sacrifice fly.
Sportika took the lead once more, 5-3, in the bottom of the second on bases-loaded walks from Anthony Delpone and Ryan Belizikjian.
Sportika then launched into a nine-batter inning in the third which yielded five runs on one hit and five walks. Masek had an RBI single to spark that rally.
After a Masek sac fly in the fourth, Gonzalez tore into a sinking liner to left which rolled to the wall for an RBI triple. He later scored on an infield error as the game ended.
Masek pitched 1⅓ scoreless innings by striking out all four batters he faced. Vinny D’Emilio pitched the first 2⅓ innings and allowed three runs on four hits, two walks and two hit batsmen, and he struck out two.
While Sportika earned a 1-1 split Saturday, the Diamondbacks fell to 0-2 after bowing to Central Jersey Rebels Black, 8-0, in a morning tilt.