SPRING AHEAD! NEXT STOP WORLD SERIES
12U Cal Ripken squad wins Middle Atlantic Regional
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » Baseball seasons are only a few months long, off-season training can extend beyond the fall and winter and it takes years to build a champion.
When a group that has been together as long as the Spring Youth Baseball 12U Cal Ripken squad has been, when you reach the summit of the biggest mountain to date, the Middle Atlantic Regional title that has eluded them for several years, there will a lot of tears. Tears of joy.
The Red Sea as the Spring Youth Baseball parents call themselves could not hold back their emotions Saturday afternoon as the Renegades dismissed the previously unbeaten Southeastern Pennsylvania state champion Hatfield-Towamencin, 5-0 and earn a berth in the Cal Ripken World Series in Branson, Missouri beginning Aug. 3.
The battle of top seeds took on the looks of an early chess match before Spring’s Eddie Yamin drilled a solo home run to start things off for the Renegades in the top of the second inning. Two batters later Matt Hall, in the No. 10 spot in the order, delivered his own round-tripper to ignite the Spring bench.
“It was kind of low, I wasn’t really expecting that, but I just got a good swing on it and it went over,” Mike Hall said. “It’s probably the best feeling ever.
“It doesn’t happen a lot because you’re probably not the best hitter for down there, but when it does you have to enjoy it and take everything from it.”
A home run and a tworun lead wasn’t in his original plan at the plate.
“I just have to put the ball in play, get on base,” Hall said. “The top of the order is coming up so I know they are going to be able to do something. It was even better to put it over the fence and get an extra run.”
Spring, which won two pool play games under the 10-run mercy rule along with its semifinal against Delaware champion, Piedmont, returned to tack on more runs in the top of the third inning.
Austin Francis led off with double down the third base line and was followed by Michael Kennedy with a walk. A throw to third to attempt Francis stealing went high and he scampered in for the third run with Kennedy advancing to third. A few throws later, Kennedy raced home on a passed ball and the lead was 4-0.
Left-handed master of many pitches, Mike Kennedy, had a full day of rest under his belt and got the start, going three full innings before being pulled by Spring manager Scott Dongelewic for hard throwing right-hander Austin Francis.
“No one hit the ball solid the whole game from me, no one hit the ball out of the infield against me and I could have at least gotten to the end of the inning,” Mike Kennedy said. “I felt it was a little too early.”
Kennedy went three innings, the longest of any Spring pitcher in the tournament, striking out five batters and walking just one. Despite the early hook, Kennedy came up big when needed.
“The last time I started in a big game it didn’t go so well, so I was happy for redemption,” Kennedy said. “I kind of knew I was going to get the start and I just wanted to come out here and play like I can.”
For Hatfield- Towamencin the adjustment to quick working, hard throwing righty Austin Francis was almost too much.
Francis did what he had done throughout the tournament; throw hard, with authority and accuracy. Including striking out the Hatfield-Towamencin side to end the final inning, the tourney and punch the Renegades tickets to Branson.
“In the beginning of the inning I was all amped up because I had a feeling that it was going to happen,” Austin Francis said. “We were up 5-0; I got tons of run support, so I came into the inning knowing that I think I’m going to be all right. I don’t think they’re going to put five runs.
“After the first strikeout I was like ‘Wow, this is crazy,’ and then the second strikeout I was like ‘Jeez, how can I do this,’ then Eddie Yamin behind the plate gave me perfect signs, exactly what I needed and my last strikeout, when I threw the last pitch I don’t even know what I was thinking. It’s some crazy stuff, going to Missouri.”
Spring manager Scott Dongelewic has had the Renegades since they were an 8-year-old travel squad and been in the dugout for a quarterfinal loss in the Mid-Atlantic Regional as well as in a semifinal.
Saturday was the day for redemption. He just had to convince his squad.
“I told them today before the game, ‘This isn’t the first championship game we’ve played in. We’ve played in plenty of championship games,’” Scott Dongelewic said. “All those feelings you’re having in your stomach and in your throat right now. That other team has the same exact feelings. It’s going to be the team that can settle those nerves, jump early, that’s the team that’s probably going to come out on top.”
That jump start came on the barrel of catcher Eddie Yamin who delivered the open salvo and clung to the game-winning ball, another fastball from Francis to claim the championship title.
“I was down 0-2 in the count, he gave me an up and inside curve ball and it just hung,” Eddie Yamin said. “I turned on it and it went over the fence. That at-bat, Coach Tuckey told me ‘Curve ball is coming, keep your weight back.’ I said O.K. coach.
“He got me on the first one, I swung in the dirt he left the second one hanging and I turned on it. Matt (Hall) came up, Coach Tuckey told him the same thing, he got the same curve ball and he hit it over the center field wall.”
If there was anything painful for Yamin on Saturday it was a few Francis fastballs.
“I’ll tell you what, there were two pitches that really stung, but everything else I caught right in the pocket, it didn’t really hurt that bad,” Yamin said.
The receiver of all three No. 1 Renegade pitchers continued to play to Francis’ strengths.
“I’m calling first pitch fastball, giving them a curve ball and then another fastball, or I’m starting curve ball, fastball, curve ball,” Yamin said. “Especially when you’re seeing this kid throw gas on the mound that’s 75 miles per hour and then you’re throwing a curve ball that is about 50 (mph), you can’t adjust to a 75 mph fastball that fast.”