RCBC Ghost 14U Nationals allowed just nine runs in five games en route to the Summer Bash title.
By Rich Bevensee
Ricky Giovannone loves bringing Josh Ulloa in to pitch in big games, and Ulloa thrives on the pressure moments.
So it really was a no-brainer for Giovannone, the coach of the Richmond County Baseball Club Ghost 14U Nationals, to send Ulloa to the mound to relieve his tiring starter, Anthony Conte, in the top of the fourth inning of a tight ballgame.
Ulloa surprisingly surrendered an RBI triple to the first batter he faced, but he was nearly perfect after that, facing just one batter over the minimum in his four innings of work.
And while Ulloa handcuffed the batters of Sandlot Baseball Academy 14U-Viglone, his Ghost teammates went about taking advantage of mental and physical errors and converting every one of them into runs.
That’s how Ghost turned a scoreless contest halfway through the game into a 6-2 victory and their third championship of the summer in the 14U Summer Bash finale on Sunday evening at Diamond Nation in Flemington.
“Josh has got really, really electric stuff. His off-speed is absolutely incredible,” Giavannone said. “That’s a good hitting team over there and he kept them off balance. Josh came in and the game turned.”
Ulloa, named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, pitched four innings in relief and allowed one run on two hits and one walk with one strikeout. Of the 12 batters he faced, only three hit the ball out of the infield.
“I love the big situations because I always want to pitch in a spot where I can improve on it, work hard and get my teammates out of a jam,” said Ulloa, a rising freshman at St. Peter’s Boys’ High School in Staten Island, N.Y.
After Ulloa’s first inning of work is when the wheels came off the wagon for Sandlot. It seemed every mental and physical error Sandlot committed came back to haunt the Scranton, Pennsylvania-based ballclub.
In the bottom of the fourth with two outs, a routine fly ball to left by Robert Esposito was misplayed and dropped in for a two-run single, allowing Ghost to tie the game at 2-2.
Esposito rolled into third on the play, and he scored when the next batter, Jack Piccolo, reached on an infield error for a 3-2 Ghost lead.
More Sandlot miscues translated into more Ghost offense in the sixth.
Conte singled to lead off the inning and raced to third on an errant pickoff throw. Two batters later he scored on a Piccolo RBI single for a 4-2 lead.
Piccolo soon scored on an error on a two-out fly ball hit by Nick Newbranch, and Newbranch scored on an RBI single by Vincenzo Lanni.
“That was a very tight game for five innings,” Giovannone said. “We got a couple good pitches to hit and we didn’t miss ‘em. We took advantage of our opportunities.”
Josh Ulloa of RCBC Ghost National was named 14U Summer Bash Most Valuable Player.
Sandlot players were left to wonder what could have been after allowing four unearned runs. Sandlot starter Nick Hricenak allowed two earned runs in four innings, and Michael Viglone did not surrender an earned run in his two innings of work.
It was a frustrating way for the summer to end for Sandlot, which closes at an impressive 20-3.
“They’re 14, they’re gonna make mistakes, but in a game like this, the team that makes mistakes, it’s gonna cost you,” Sandlot coach Mike Viglone said. “We had three errors and they made none and that’s the game. It kind of snowballed on us. We play a lot of hard teams but they (RCBC) are really good. They’re very well coached, you can tell.”
RCBC was celebrating its third title of the summer, following championships claimed in Perfect Game and USABL events.
Ulloa, who pitched three innings in relief on Friday and was rested Saturday, knew he was penciled in for relief work in the title game. It was just a matter of when. And once his teammates began to capitalize on errors, he attacked the strike zone with an off-speed menu which kept Sandlot batters guessing.
“Our team doesn’t get super loud, but we could sense the momentum shifted to our side and we were getting super loud then,” Ulloa said. “Our team is great defensively. I always trust them when I’m on the mound. I’m not scared that we’re gonna make errors because our team is solid that way.
“It’s been a crazy weekend. This is a great way to end the season.”
Conte, the Ghost starter, pitched three innings and allowed one run on no hits and three walks with two strikeouts.
For Sandlot, the offense drew first blood in the game when Hricenak led off the fourth with a walk against Conte. Viglone was the first batter to face Ulloa and he tripled to the fence in right center. Four pitches later Viglone scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 Sandlot lead.