Landon McAleer scores on a wild pitch for Team Stripes during 10U All-Ripken play.
By Sean Reilly
After four games and 23 innings over the course of two days, there was very little that separated Team Stars and Team Stripes at the 10U All-Ripken Games at Diamond Nation.
The teams split in the Wednesday doubleheader in Flemington.
They played twice more on Thursday, with Team Stripes taking the opener, 11-10.
In the game which followed, Team Stars was a 15-14 winner.
The final out of each game was recorded with the potential winning run on base.
Aside from experiencing the nail-biting action, the players also got to enjoy the experience of participating in a sport they enjoy, in a competitive environment, and doing so with teammates they’d otherwise never meet.
“I’ve had a lot of fun,” said Bay Jackson from Team Stripes. “I had an extra chance to play baseball, and got to meet a lot of different people.”
Jackson was one of many players on both teams who excelled throughout the event. He was 7-for-11 at the plate, with eight runs scored.
James Pollak connects on a two-run double for Team Stars during 10U All-Ripken play.
He was a major factor in Game 3 of the series, when he was 2-for-3 with three runs scored and one RBI.
Jackson was also pitching in the bottom of the sixth, with his team leading by a run, and with the opponent having runners on first and third.
It was a pressure situation, but Jackson, who plays travel ball for the Stafford Hitmen, bore down and closed out the game with a strikeout and pitcher-to-first ground out.
“I didn’t think too much about the pressure,” he said. “Instead of taking that on, I thought about my travel team, the Stafford Hitmen, and that I play for them and just focused on that instead of thinking about the pressure.”
In their games on Wednesday, Team Stars won the opener, 10-6, before Team Stripes was an 8-4 winner in the nightcap.
On Thursday, Team Stripes maintained that momentum, building a lead as large as 11-3 in the fifth inning of the opener before Team Stripes mounted a comeback that fell just short, thanks to Jackson’s relief work on the mound.
Team Stripes took a 6-0 lead in the first inning, as its first five batters — Johnny Lay, Mason Roman, Landen McAleer, Jackson and Elias Padro — all reached on hits, and all but Padro scored. Kwame Boachie-Agyeman walked and scored, and Ben Burns and Ethan Hartle hit RBI singles.
The lead gradually expanded, and stretched to 11-3 after Jackson hit an RBI double to left field and continued home on an error with one out in the fifth.
Team Stars then blended hits and errors to score six times and get within 11-9 in the bottom of the frame. Braylon Robinson hit a sacrifice fly, Gavin Emery had an RBI single and Anurak Taing delivered a two-run hit during the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, Liam Schenkel led off with a single to left for Team Stars. After a strikeout, he moved to second on a wild pitch. Nathaniel Messam hit an RBI single, and he advanced to third on a base hit by Jackson Barnaby before the final two outs were recorded.
Team Stripes first baseman Mason Roman handles throw for an out.
In Thursday’s second game, Team Stars led 8-1 after two innings, before Team Stripes rallied with five runs in the third and seven in the fourth to go ahead, 13-8.
But the craziness of the entire series was encapsulated in the top of the fifth and final inning, as Team Stars scored seven runs for a 15-13 lead.
Asher Carey had the big hit, a two-run single near second base with two out to break a 13-13 tie.
In the bottom of the inning, McAleer hit an RBI single with two out, before the final out was recorded by Gavin Emory with two out.
James Pollak was 3-for-4 with three runs and one RBI for Team Stars in the final game, after going 1-for-2 with a two-run double in Game 3.