The MC Oilers went 5-0 through the 13U field to claim the Labor Day Blast championship.
By Rich Bevensee
On paper, Jack Testa and Connor Smith could have been considered two very unlikely heroes when their Monmouth County Oilers 13U Scout ballclub took the field for the Labor Day Blast championship game on Sunday evening at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
Testa, the Oilers’ starting pitcher, was playing up an age group and certainly was more familiar with the 50-foot distance from the pitcher’s mound to home for 12U players than he was with the standard 60-foot distance on the big field. Smith was mired in a 1-for-6 slump over the holiday weekend before his bat took center stage.
Neither player shrunk from the spotlight.
Testa pitched like a grizzled veteran on the big field, throwing a two-hit shutout, and Smith sent his teammates into a frenzy when he led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a walk-off, inside-the-park home run to give the Oilers an 8-0 mercy rule victory over CK Cardinals National and the 13U title.
“Winning the game like that was awesome, man,” said Oilers center fielder Troy Hedberg, who got the win in the 13U semifinals and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. “A group of us called it in the dugout before he went up to bat. To see it happen, honestly, it was one of the most exciting experiences.”
Testa was not completely untested on a 90-foot diamond before the championship game, having pitched in a handful of games prior to this weekend, according to Oilers coach Frank D’Agostino, who is also the varsity head coach at St. Rose High School in Belmar.
“He’s a guy,” D’Agostino said. “We trained him to come up for this. When he was behind in the count it didn’t phase him. He lets up a hit here or there, he gets the ball right back and goes back to work. Every level he’s been at he’s always been a guy. He’s a 12 playing up which says a lot about him.”
But to see his command, his mound presence, and his determination when he faced trouble was to see a young man who didn’t look like he was in his first year of pitching on the big field.
Testa allowed two hits and three walks over five innings and struck out four. He tiptoed through a hotspot in the fourth when he surrendered a single and two walks to load the bases with one out. He calmly got two infield popups to escape damage.
“I love his pitching style,” Hedberg said. “He’s a sidearm pitcher and I love how he throws the ball. He knows how to get the job done.”
Testa’s control was impeccable. Combining a fastball with a splitter and curveball, he pitched to a three-ball count to just five of the 20 batters he faced.
Troy Hedberg batted .600 and got the win for the Oilers in the semifinals to earn MVP honors.
“I just know all the kids here are in my grade and I belong playing with them,” Testa said. “I believe in the people I play with and I like playing up. I like the pressure. I don’t think about it. I go on the mound and do what I do.”
D’Agostino praised Hedberg for his overall game in naming him the MVP.
“He does everything,” D’Agostino said. “Hits in our three-hole. Patrols center field. Very talented player and he does everything a coach wants. A coach’s dream.”
Hedberg batted .600 through the Oilers’ five-game unbeaten run through the weekend and charted a triple, two doubles, eight RBI and four runs scored.
In the semifinals, a 4-3 decision over Wow Factor NE National Black of Paramus, Hedberg earned the victory after going five innings and allowing three runs on four hits and two walks with eight strikeouts.
“Honestly it’s about my teammates backing me up,” Hedberg said when asked about his confidence level. “They’re the ones who give me the encouragement to pitch better. I know they have my back and I know they can make the play when I get hit. It’s something I can keep in my mind.”
In the championship game the Oilers began building a lead before Testa sensed even a hint of trouble. In the first inning Hedberg belted an RBI double and later scored on a passed ball for a 2-0 Oilers lead.
In the second, a pair of bases-loaded walks earned by Joe O’Connor and Hedberg sandwiched a run scored by Benny Serrano on a wild pitch to bring the Oilers a 5-0 cushion.
In the meantime Testa had faced just two batters over the minimum until the fourth when the Cardinals loaded the bases with one out. Two infield popups squashed any Cardinals plans of a comeback.
The Oilers added two more runs in the bottom of the frame when Hedberg’s slow roller through the middle with the bases loaded gave the Oilers a 7-0 lead.
Then came Smith leading off the bottom of the fifth. With the Oilers one run shy of bringing game to an end via the mercy rule, Smith hit a fly ball to center field where the Cardinals’ Ben Espada made a gallant diving effort to make the catch but came up short. The ball rolled to the center field fence, allowing Smith to race around the bases while his teammates poured out of the dugout to begin a wild celebration.
“I was about to hit first base when I saw it go by him and I was like, I need to get home. It was amazing,” Smith said. “When I got to third I was smiling and I saw my teammates coming out of the dugout and I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh I can’t believe I just did this.’”
Espada had made a terrific catch in center in the first inning – easily the defensive play of the game – which probably gave him the confidence to lay out for the Smith fly ball. The Oilers had already taken a 2-0 lead and had runners on second and third with two out when Espada charged in and made a feet-first, sliding catch of a Mikey McElroy fly ball to save another pair of runs from scoring.
Smith had struck out twice in the final before his trip around the bases, but said he wasn’t thinking about his struggles at the plate. He was thinking about his previous game-winning walk-off, a shot over the fence in 12U ball last season. That dose of self-confidence allowed him to focus on the task at hand.
“In the dugout we were like, imagine if he goes yard right here,” Testa said. “It was pretty cool. He’s been struggling so it was good to see him end the tournament like that.”