Baseball U Scranton-Tellip catcher Pat Munley leads off first base against Morris County Cubs.
By Will Harrigan
Coach Trevor Tellip has himself a terrifically talented 18U baseball squad in the Baseball U-Scranton program.
He has an entire 10-man lineup that almost assuredly will all go on to play college baseball, and a few big arms that come in to shut the door.
Playing in their first fall tournament of the fall, they looked every bit the part of juggernaut in the 17/18U Wood Bat Championships
Getting contributions from everyone on the squad, Baseball U Scranton-Tellip rolled to a 7-2 victory over the Morris County Cubs 17U on Sunday. The victory was part of a 2-0 weekend for the Tellip squad that saw its third game canceled due to rain.
“It’s exciting to see where this is going right now. We aren’t even at full strength yet with us just getting back into fall ball,” said Tellip. “Our top goal now is to get some more of our guys signed at the next level.”
St. John’s-bound rising senior Chaz Wright got the offense going all by himself, singling, stealing second, and taking third on a wild pitch.
Two batters later, a deep sac fly to left off James Bottger’s bat would score Wright for the game’s first run.
Baseball U Scranton-Tellip’s Brandon Wozniak stands in at the dish.
Dante Ruby, another Baseball U player with heavy interest from numerous Division I schools but not yet committed, would walk and eventually score on a Cubs fielding mishap with two outs.
A pair of two out walks seemed harmless for the Cubs in the second, but a dropped fly ball allowed Wright and Patrick Higgins to score, instantly doubling the lead and putting the Tellip squad in control.
Bottger would rope a double down the left field line to start the third, and came around to score two batters later when Trehnan Hugo drove him in on a sacrifice fly to center.
The run support was more than enough for Baseball U starter T.J. Johnson, who struck out seven batters while not surrendering a hit in four innings of work.
“He was actually kind of limited tonight,” said Tellip of Johnson. “He hasn’t pitched in a while with this being our first tournament and all. Usually I’d let him go a bit longer.”
The Cubs, a club that is always among the best of the travel programs coming through ‘The Nation,’ played a number of players up a class.
The Cubs scored a pair of runs in the seventh, first on an RBI single by Ethan Rasmussen, and later a wild pitch that would score Roxbury resident Anthony Rizzo.
Bottger and teammate Brandon Wozniak drove in insurance runs in the fifth for Baseball U.