Hamilton-Northern Burlington 14s move to 2-0 in Pool A
HAMILTON » The Hamilton-Northern Burlington Babe Ruth 14-yearold All Stars watched Severn, Md. lose it’s opening game of the MidAtlantic Tournament by 14 runs and couldn’t help but feel a little superior when the teams met on Wednesday.
While whispers filtered around Switlik Park that it would be an easy 10-run rule win for the home team, it was not the case. Severn hung in, played a pretty solid game after some early errors and Hamilton had to go the distance in taking a 7-1 victory to move to 2-0 in Pool A.
Not surprisingly, H-NB was not at the top of its game.
“They’re kids; so I would say probably yes,” said coach Mo Moceri when asked if the team had some trouble getting up for the game. “We came out a little flat. They’re kids, they watch the games and sometimes it is hard. We preach to bring that energy every day and if you don’t, you’re gonna slip somewhere along the line.”
Moceri tried to keep his team’s focus after H-NB left the bases loaded in each of the first two innings, yelling out, “If you don’t get quality at-bats, you’re not gonna hit.” While that’s an idle threat with some teams, who only carry 10 players, it’s a very real one with manager Jim Petersohn’s 15-man roster.
“You just watch everyone play on this team,” said outfielder Zac Brown, who had a hit and an RBI. We’re all good enough to start on any team in the state. It’s just fun.”
It’s also competitive, which is why Moceri’s threat should be taken seriously.
Then again, Hamilton-NB didn’t play a bad game. It collected seven hits and its pitchers continued to dominate as Tyler Solymosi and Carson Wehner combined on a 5-hitter. The only bummer was that H-NB’s streak of scoreless innings ended at 25 in the sixth when Collin Malee hit a two-out RBI single.
Hamilton took a 2-0 lead in the first on an error and Nate Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly. The hosts doubled it in the second on Brown’s sacrifice fly and another error. The final scoring came in a threerun fourth on David Zamora’s RBI double, Tommy Cramer’s sacrifice fly and a wild pitch.
Although tagged with a run, Wehner allowed just three hits and no walks with two strikeouts over the final four innings. He and Solymosi were both under 45 pitches, so they remain eligible to throw.
“We have probably the most pitching here,” Brown said. “I pitch, and I haven’t pitched at all for this team yet. Everyone on the team can really pitch at a good level. We have three aces on our team so the way we look at it, the more easy wins we can get, we can save our pitching for the better teams.”
Next up for Hamilton is Bridgewater, which is also 2-0 in Pool A, at 5 p.m. Thursday. The final pool standings will determine seeding for single elimination bracket play, which opens with four quarterfinals on Friday.
“The most important thing is we get the win,” Moceri said. “And we did that today, so we’re happy.”
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Severn, Md. 000 001 0 — 1 5 3 Hamilton-N. Burlington 220 300 X — 7 7 0 2B: S-Gavigan. H-Martin, Zamora, Nemes. RBI: S-Malee. H-Zamora, Cramer, Rodriguez, Brown. WP: Wehner. LP: Scollar.