North Hamilton snaps four-game skid with win over Trenton
TRENTON » After enduring losing streaks, the North Hamilton Hibos and the Trenton Posts 93 & 182 Schroths just wanted to win Tuesday night at Wetzel Field.
Both teams’ desire carried them down to the final out before North Hamilton pulled out a 5-4 win with the tying run for the Schroths standing 90 feet away.
The victory snapped a fourgame losing streak for the Hibos (5-7), while the loss was the fourth of a one-run variety for a young Trenton baseball club, which has yet to win in 12 tries this Mercer County American Legion League season.
“They are not an 0-12 team,” North Hamilton winning pitcher Ryan Sparks said. “They’re a lot better than that.”
While those are encouraging words from an opponent, it still would have meant more if Sterling Ayala could have crossed the plate from third base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh or if the batter in front of him, Robert Guillen, had been called safe on a very close play at first base, which helped Gerry Howell come around to score the fourth run for Posts 93 & 182 on Ayala’s single that inning.
“We’re basically a young team, and we make little mistakes,” said Ayala, who is like a coach on the field after playing his freshman year at Raritan Valley Community College. “They just need some more time playing together.”
A little more time was what the Schroths needed to hang with the Hibos for at least one more inning after rallying to tie the game at 3 in the third inning on Freilin Vargas’ hit, which popped off the glove of leaping North Hamilton shortstop Phil Rojek.
Rojek would later take over on the mound for Sparks, who threw six innings and threw in excess of 100 pitches.
“Still, I wanted to pitch that last inning,” Sparks said. “I just don’t feel comfortable when someone else has to finish for me.”
Trenton only managed five hits off the Hibos’ pitchers (four off Sparks), but simply would not give up.
After taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI double by Ayala and an RBI ground out by Railin Ortiz, the home team was intent on showing that it can win.
Pitcher Elvin Duran had a bad second inning when North Hamilton had four of its 10 hits, including an RBI single by Ryan Conover and a two-run single by David Scott. Other than that, Duran matched Sparks until the seventh inning when walks to Brett Hoffman and Sparks came back to hurt the Schroths pitcher when Bryce Fremgen and Jack Milazzo singled in runs.
“I just try to keep it positive for these young guys,” said Ayala, who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and four stolen bases.
Ayala also started three double plays which kept his team in the hunt, including one of the spectacular variety when he dived up the middle to a ball hit by Fremgen, flipped the ball from the ground to second baseman Guillen, who relayed to first baseman Howell for the show-stopping twin killing.
After singling in Howell in
the bottom of the seventh, Ayala stole two bases and looked ready to come home when Vargas hit a Rojek pitch on the nose, but right at right fielder Milazzo to end the game.
HIGHTSTOWN 4, BSP0 HIGHTSTOWN » Joe Bonacorda had two hits, including a double, and Tyler McGuigan had two runs batted in to help the Highstown Post 148 baseball team knock off Mercer County American Legion League-leading Broad Street Park Post 313 at Mercer County Park.
In addition, McGuigan went the distance on the mound, scattering five hits and striking out six to get the win.
David Zamora had two of BSP’s five hits.