Nitti’s clutch catch helps Nottingham hold off Lawrence
HAMILTON » The ball jumped off Patrick Maloney’s bat and rocketed toward centerfield. Everyone in Van Horn Park held their collective breaths except for two people — Bill James and Braeden Nitti.
With the bases loaded, Nitti calmly took two steps back and made the catch just in front of the warning track to seal Nottingham Little League’s 4-2 win over Lawrence in the first round of the 12-year-old District 12 Tournament Friday night.
The ball was hit off reliever Matt Dziubek, who escaped a bases-loaded, noout jam in the sixth.
“On that last ball hit to dead center I was just like, ‘Awww Braeden please just catch this so we can get this over with.’” Dziubek said.
Nottingham manager James had no such apprehension.
“I thought Braeden had it,” James said. “I watched him and I could see from his reaction he had it. I really wasn’t worried.”
The result means that Lawrence will play an elimination game Sunday at 2 p.m., while Nottingham takes on the winner of Friday’s second game at Van Horn between Florence and HTRBA.
Nottingham is trying to reclaim the district title after having its stranglehold loosened by Bordentown last year.
“This is only my second year playing all-stars and I’ve never won districts before,” Dziubek said. “So (the theme) is gonna be let’s get it back to Nottingham and hopefully my first district win.”
Nottingham took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second when Colin James singled and was replaced on first by Dziubek’s fielder’s choice. Michael Smith then singled, and Cameron Cote’s grounder resulted in a tworun error.
NLL doubled its lead in the third when Jack Hughes hit a two-out double, and James followed by lining an 0-2 fastball the opposite way over the rightfield fence.
“I knew he was throwing a lot of off-speed,” James said. “But he gave me two straight fastballs and then he gave me a third and I just took it the other way. I was surprised I didn’t see any off-speed.”
The homer led to a pitching change as Ryan Willever, Lawrence’s ace, entered and retired the first eight he faced (five by strikeouts) before exiting with a pitch count that allows him to throw on Sunday.
Lawrence tried battling back. In the fourth inning, a Willever single and Ben Pawlak double set up a tworun single by Jonathan Tyliczka. It remained 4-2 into the sixth as Michael Stromberg threw five strong innings before allowing singles to Nate Duff and Pawlak to start the seventh. James then turned to Dziubek.
“He pitched great, he pitched phenomenal,” Bill James said of his starter. “He got a little tired at the end but that’s baseball. That’s what you expect from him, great control and to make pitches that he can make. He’ll throw strikes, he threw a lot of groundballs. He did phenomenal.”
When Dziubek entered he made a tough situation harder with a wild pitch and then a walk to load the bases. But he got two straight strikeouts before Maloney hit his tracer to Nitti.
And everyone could start breathing again, except for the NLL manager and centerfielder, who both had it all the way.
Nottingham 022 000 — 4 6 1 Lawrence 000 200 — 2 7 1 HR: N-James. 2B: N-Jolly, Hughes. L-Tyliczka. RBI: L-Tyliczka 2. N-Cote. C. James 2. WP: Stromberg. LP: Hasan.