By Sean Reilly
Steve Ferullo, the coach of TCB 11U, was placed in quite a predicament in the days leading up to the 11U Boys of Summer tournament at Diamond Nation.
All but two players from his Ocean County-based team were unavailable, since they were competing for town teams that advanced in a few different Little League tournaments, and it was too late to switch to a later-season event at ‘The Nation.’
With that, he worked the phones and found enough players from several different teams to compete in Flemington.
They met as a group for the first time on Friday night, and bonded while sweeping their first two pool-play games. Another win on Saturday clinched a first-place pool finish and berth in the Sunday morning championship, against the also unbeaten Deep Run Thunderhawks from Pennsylvania.
Six innings later, that collection of strangers-turned-teammates were in a dogpile together near second base, smiling and celebrating an 8-3 victory over Deep Run for the championship in Flemington.
TCB outscored its four opponents, 46-11, and totaled 43 hits, including 16 in the final.
“That was awesome how it all worked out,” Ferullo said. “Our regular guys are away, so I made some phone calls and we put the team together in the matter of three days. There were people saying yes, and I was telling them I didn’t know what it was going to look like, but we were going to get out there and play, and we wound up winning four games. We scrambled, and we found these guys, and they hit it off together. They got along because they were a group of kids playing the game that they love.”
Ferullo didn’t have to look far to find two of his players. His son, Stevan, was one of the two TCB regulars in the lineup, along with Luca Baldo.
Baldo batted leadoff and played shortstop. He was 3-for-3 in the final, and 5-for-10 over the tournament.
Stevan Ferullo pitched and batted second in the final. He was 2-for-3 in the title game, and also 5-for-10 on the weekend. He pitched all six innings in the final, allowing five hits with two strikeouts and two walks. He was named tournament MVP.
“Our main team, nine of 11 kids, is playing in All-Stars,” the younger Ferullo said. “On Friday, we got to know each other, talking through our first two pool play games together. It was cool. Some of the kids I had played against before, and now we’re friends, and we won. We all did well as a team together. It’s amazing.”
As an example of how the team was assembled, Logan Sutter joined up with the team despite knowing only one other player, Baldo.
Sutter caught every game, went 2-for-4 in the final, and worked well serving as Ferullo’s battery mate. He also threw out two runners trying to steal, including the leadoff man who reached on an error in the top of the first.
Stevan Ferullo of TCB was named the 11U Boys of Summer Most Valuable Player.
“I’m not used to playing with these guys,” Sutter said. “If I didn’t come here this weekend, I would have been home doing nothing. It was like a mish-mash of players, and we came together and won. It’s really cool that we could come together like that through playing baseball. It was a lot of fun.”
TCB scored twice in each of the first four innings.
In the bottom of the first, Baldo led off with a double to left field. Ferullo followed with a single to center. Baldo was thrown out at third, but Ferullo took second on the throw. Cam Kish then hit an RBI single to center. He stole third, and scored as Chris Curialle grounded out to third.
Deep Run got a run back in the second. Luke Mangeney (2-for-2) singled up the middle with two out and stole second. The next batter safely reached first on a strike three wild pitch that scored Mangeney after he beat a throw back to the plate. The batter, meanwhile, tried to take second, but was thrown out by Sutter for the third out.
Sutter led off the second inning with a single that reached the fence in left field. Nicholas Poole was his courtesy runner, and moved to second when Jack Behnke singled to right. After a ground out which advanced the runners, and a soft line out to shortstop, Logan McGuire and Baldo followed with RBI singles.
The lead extended to 6-1 in the third, with both runs scoring on a single to shortstop by Behnke.
TCB lifted the lead in the fourth. Baldo led off with a single to center, stole second and moved to third on a passed ball. Ferullo delivered an RBI single to right. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, and took third after tagging on Kish’s fly out to center. Currialle then hit a sacrifice fly to center for an 8-1 lead.
Deep Run scored its other runs in the fifth. Chase Rowland led off with a double to center and scored when Zach Wright followed with a double past first base and into the right-field corner. Mangeney then hit an RBI single to left.
Aside from Baldo and Ferullo’s performance, Kish, Sutter and Behnke all finished with two hits apiece for TCB.