Defending champ HTRBA edges Nottingham
HAMILTON » HTRBA is the reigning 12-year-old District 12 Little League champ, but by virtue of winning districts as 10s and 11s, this year’s Nottingham squad is considered the team to beat.
But the Mercerville Maulers indicated they aren’t quite ready to give up that 12-yearold trophy as they held off a late Nottingham charge for a 10-8 victory in their home confines of Van Horn Field Sunday.
And while beating Nottingham is always considered big for another Hamilton Township team, slugging star Dan Leon felt it was only one more step to the ultimate goal.
“It’s one game,” the savvy 11-year-old catcher said. “It’s just one game that we played pretty well. But there’s still more games to play.”
The next one is at 8 p.m. Tuesday when HTRBA meets Lawrence, which defeated Bordentown earlier in the blazing hot day. Adam Bendas’ Nottingham club comes back Monday, 6 p.m., against West Windsor.
Leon led the HTRBA attack by going 4-for-4 with a grand slam, five RBI and two runs scored, helping his team to what proved to be an insurmountable 10-1 lead.
“I was just putting the ball in plays as much as I could,” Leon said.
“He’s on fire,” manager Mike Septak said. “He’s just been missing all year. Today with the hot weather everything just clicked for him.”
The Maulers were also helped by the gutsy complete-game pitching of Noali Ortiz, the lone holdover from last year’s champs. Ortiz, who turns 12 on Tuesday, allowed 12 hits for the game, and yielded seven runs in the final three innings but staggered across the finish line by getting the final two batters who both represented the tying run.
“I was feeling hot and a little tired, but I was good,” said Ortiz, who told his coaches he wanted the ball in the sixth inning. “I feel great, the team had great back-up and they helped me pull that game out.”
Nottingham struck first when leadoff man Jake Pope collected the first of his four hits and scored the first of his three runs on a first-inning error.
Then came the stunning second, when HTRBA exploded for seven runs.
It actually didn’t start in explosive fashion, as two bloops, an infield hit and a squibber provided four straight singles to tie it. Justin Allen’s fielder’s choice made it 2-1. Ortiz, who had two hits and two runs scored, followed with an RBI single and, after a walk, Leon launched his first homer of the year.
“I felt great after that,” Ortiz said. “I knew that gave us some cushion for me and our team and that really helped us out.”
HTRBA tacked on three in the fourth on Leon’s RBI single, a wild pitch and Tim Griegel’s fielder’s choice.
Nottingham took advantage of a one-out error in the bottom of the inning, getting RBI singles from Pope and Deacon Bowne, a run-scoring double from Ryan White and a two-run single by Christian Finacchio. With Nottingham’s momentum rolling, Ortiz came up huge in the fifth when the leadoff runner reached third and the pitcher escaped unscathed.
Finacchio and Bowne hit RBI singles in the sixth to cut the margin to two before Ortiz got a line drive to right and a squib in front of the plate to end it.
HTRBA 10 Nottingham 070 300 — 100 501 — 8
WP: Ortiz. LP: Graziano. 2B: H-Babkowski. N-White, Pope. HR: H-Leon. RBI: H-Leon 5, Ortiz, Griegel, Rigas, Allen. N-Finacchio 3, Pope, White, Bowne 2
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores