Nottingham holds off WW-P in state tournament

HOPEWELL » The first game of the Babe Ruth League Southern New Jersey 13-Year-Old Tournament showed plenty of promise Friday night at Bacon Field.

The four-team tournament opened with a local clash between West Windsor-Plainsboro and Nottingham that was not locked up until the last two innings.

Nottingham took an early lead, then held off a charge by WW-P before adding a couple insurance runs in the sixth inning to stay in the winners’ bracket with a 7-3 victory.

That allows Nottingham to play in Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. winners’ bracket contest versus the winner of last night’s game between Atlantic Shore and host Ewing/Hopewell.

“We got a few runs early, but it took us a little while to get into a groove,” Nottingham’s leadoff hitter Mason

Waznis said. “We lost a little in the middle, but we just needed to keep playing.”

Waznis, who will be a freshman at Steinert High next month, was at the center of it all for head coach Rich Carabelli’s group.

Beginning the game at second base, Waznis drew walks in his first two at-bats, then delivered two singles, while also stealing three bases.

“I didn’t get many strikes my first two at-bats,” Waznis said.

After Justin Prekop threw four hitless innings on the mound for Nottingham, Waznis took over and saw West Windsor-Plainsboro rally.

When Waznis moved back to shortstop for the final two innings, Mason Grant moved to the mound and kept WW-P from scoring again.

“I’m glad we hung in there,” said West WindsorPlainsboro head coach Jason Petrone, whose team returns for an 11 a.m. game Saturday versus the loser of Friday’s late Atlantic Shore-Ewing/ Hopewell contest. “We got off to a rocky start, but then we settled down.”

Petrone’s boys fell in a 5-0 hole in the second inning when an RBI single by Michael McCarty, an RBI ground out by Antonio Friedman and a two-run single by Prekop put Nottingham on top.

WW-P responded with three runs of its own in the top of the fifth as Will Carter’s first hit for the visitors sparked a rally, which included an RBI ground out by Bennett Siegel.

After West WindsorPlainsboro’s Travis Petrone took over for starting pitcher Siegel, he kept the home team off balance until Waznis delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth and Friedman drove him home with a double. WW-P0000300—342 Nottingham 050 002 x — 7 7 3

2B: Friedman (N); RBIs: Siegel (WWP), Waznis, Friedman 2, Prekop 2, McCarty (N). WP — Prekop; LP — Siegel; S — Grant.