West Windsor 14s start SNJ tourney with win
HAMILTON » The West WindsorPlainsboro and Marlton 14-YearOld All-Star teams opened the Southern New Jersey Babe Ruth Tournament in style Friday night at Bob DeMeo Field in Veterans Park.
WW-P right-handed pitcher JJ Casey and Marlton righty Will Carr only allowed one hit apiece through the first 3½ innings before the locals began to pull away for a 6-1 win.
With the victory, West WindsorPlainsboro advances to play the winner of last night’s late game between Atlantic Shore and Nottingham at 1:30 p.m. Saturday., back here at DeMeo Field.
It was almost the whole four innings of scoreless ball, but with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, WW-P cleanup hitter David Olenchalk singled and Jahan Kulkarni doubled to the left-field fence for the game’s first run. A wild pitch and a walk to Jacob Hastings put runners at the corners before Casey singled in Kulkarni to give manager James Vilardi’s team a 2-0 edge.
“It was fun,” said Casey, a sixfooter who has only been playing baseball in America since moving here from Japan two-and-ahalf years ago. “I was uncomfortable the whole game. They were all big.”
Casey did not pitch as if much bothered him.
Marlton, which returns for an
Los Angeles San Diego Colorado Arizona Giants
Friday’s games W
19 15 13 13 11
L
8 12 12 13 16
Pct
.704 .556 .520 .500 .407
Miami at Washington Milwaukee at Pittsburgh
N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets, ppd. Philadelphia at Atlanta Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Cincinnati at St. Louis Houston at San Diego Colorado at L.A. Dodgers Arizona at Giants 11 a.m. game Saturday versus the loser of Friday’s late game, put runners at the corners in the top of the fifth after Brian Magee’s two-out, infield hit, but Casey reached back to catch Carr looking at a called third strike to end the threat.
West Windsor-Plainsboro added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth when Rishi Bajaj knocked in Luke Foley.
Manager Chris Pino’s club got singles from JP Hange and AJ Hummel in the top of the sixth and once again put runners at the corners, but Casey would not crack as he enticed Ben Schartoff to ground out to kill the rally.
The home team doubled its lead in the bottom of the sixth following singles by Hastings, Rohan Sheth and Kai Hanson. A wild pitch by reliever Logan Gebhert, a squeeze bunt by Foley and an errant pickoff throw pushed WW-P’s advantage to 6-0.
Casey stayed in command until walking Dylan Pino to begin the seventh, giving him 94 pitches on the day.
“I had to come out,” Casey said. “I’m catching tomorrow.”
Devin Singh came on in relief, and though his control was a bit of an issue, he got the home team out of trouble. Singh walked three more batters to force in Marlton’s only run, but also struck out the side to end the game when he retired Hummel on three pitches.
Marlton WW-P
2B: Kulkarni (WWP); RBIs: Foley, Bajaj, Kulkarni, Casey (WWP).
WP — Casey; LP — Carr.
GB
_ 4 5 5 1⁄2 8
0000001—141 000213x—680 Saturday’s games
Miami (Yamamoto 0-1) at Washington (Scherzer 2-1), 4:05 p.m., 1st game Milwaukee (Lindblom 1-0) at Pittsburgh (Holland 0-1), 4:05 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (TBD) at N.Y. Mets (TBD), ppd.
Philadelphia (Wheeler 3-0) at Atlanta (Erlin 0-0), 7:10 p.m. Washington (TBD) at Miami (TBD), 7:35 p.m., 2nd game
Chicago White Sox (Cease 4-1) at Chicago Cubs (Hendricks 3-2), 8:15 p.m. Cincinnati (Miley 0-2) at St. Louis (Kim 0-0), 8:15 p.m.
Colorado (Freeland 2-1) at L.A. Dodgers (May 1-1), 9:10 p.m.
Houston (Bielak 3-0) at San Diego (Davies 3-2), 9:10 p.m.
Arizona (Gallen 0-0) at Giants (TBD), 9:15 p.m.