WW-P 14s fall short in SNJ Tournament
HAMILTON » Try as it might, the West Windsor-Plainsboro 14-Year-Old Babe Ruth baseball team could not keep the seemingly inevitable end to the 2020 Southern New Jersey Tournaments from happening.
The last two weeks at the 15YO and 13YO Southern NJ Babe Ruth Tournaments, a team from Hamilton ended up meeting a team from Atlantic County in the final round.
The same became true Sunday when Atlantic Shore defeated WW-P, 111, in six innings in the losers’ bracket final of the 14YO Tournament, here at Bob DeMeo Field in Veterans Park, to set up Monday’s championship round between AS and winners’ bracket champ Nottingham.
Atlantic Shore, which has already had teams take the crown at the 15YO and 13YO levels this summer, will go for the trifecta, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Monday at DeMeo. Manager Dave Geiger’s
club would need to defeat Nottingham twice to pull that off. If a second game is needed Monday, it would follow approximately a half hour after completion of the first.
For those who cannot make it over to Veterans Park Monday night, the final round will be videostreamed live at wbcbsports.com or on WBCB’s Facebook Live page, beginning with The Trentonian Pre-Game Show.
Before thinking about that, the Atlantic County boys had to get past another feisty Mercer County squad. They wasted little time in setting the tone for the game against West Windsor-Plainsboro and its starting pitcher Jahan Kulkarni.
Leadoff hitter Christian Elliott started the top of the first inning by singling, then stealing two bases. No. 2 hitter Jake Meyers was hit by a pitch and proceeded to steal second, then third base after cleanup hitter Nate Wagner knocked in Elliott with a one-out infield hit.
After opposing pitcher Cohen Cook was also hit by
Cleveland 6, Detroit 1
Tampa Bay 2, Toronto 1, 10 innings Minnesota 7, Kansas City 2 Baltimore 5, Boston 4, 10 innings Chicago White Sox 7, Chicago Cubs 4 San Diego 13, Houston 2 Seattle 10, Texas 1
N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets, ppd.
Sunday’s games
Baltimore 5, Boston 4
Tampa Bay 5, Toronto 4 Detroit 7, Cleveland 4 Chicago Cubs 2, Chicago White Sox 1 Minnesota 5, Kansas City 4 Seattle 4, Texas 1
San Diego 5, Houston 3
N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets, ppd. L.A. Angels at A’s
Monday’s games
Toronto (Roark 2-1) at Tampa Bay (Snell 2-0), 3:10 p.m.
Chicago Cubs (Mills 2-2) at Detroit (Mize 0-0), 7:10 p.m.
Minnesota (Maeda 3-0) at Cleveland (Civale 3-2), 7:10 p.m.
A’s (Luzardo 2-0) at Texas (Lynn 3-0), 8:05 p.m.
Kansas City (Keller 3-0) at St. Louis (Flaherty 1-0), 8:15 p.m.
L.A. Angels (Sandoval 0-3) at Houston a pitch to load the bases, Will Lapointe lofted a sacrifice fly to plate Meyers, then Wagner — who also stole a base, along with Cook — came in to score on an error.
Six batters into the game, Atlantic Shore already had a 3-0 lead.
“I felt pretty good out there, but my change-up was not on, and they were hitting my curveball,” Kulkarni said.
Things settled down as Kulkarni, a right-handed pitcher/third baseman who is going to be a freshman at West Windsor-Plainsboro High North, retired nine of the next 10 batters he faced.
Meanwhile, WW-P looked like it was ready to get right back in the game when it loaded the bases with one out, and the heart of its lineup coming to the plate, in the bottom of the third.
But AS turned a pitcherto-catcher-to-first base double play to kill the rally.
The following inning, manager James Vilardi’s squad looked ready to do it again when David Olenchalk reached on (Valdez 2-2), 9:10 p.m.
Tuesday’s games
Boston at Toronto, 6:37 p.m. Baltimore at Tampa Bay, 6:40 p.m. Chicago Cubs at Detroit, 7:10 p.m. Minnesota at Cleveland, 7:10 p.m. N.Y. Yankees at Atlanta, 7:10 p.m. A’s at Texas, 8:05 p.m. Pittsburgh at Chicago White Sox, 8:10 p.m.
Kansas City at St. Louis, 8:15 p.m. L.A. Angels at Houston, 9:10 p.m. Seattle at San Diego, 9:10 p.m.
Atlanta Miami New York Washington Philadelphia
Chicago an error, Kulkarni walked against new pitcher Ethan Mitnick and Jacob Hastings blooped a single into center field to load the bases with no outs.
Once more, Atlantic Shore nearly turned the same pitcher-to-catcherto-first double play. Only this time, after retiring Olenchalk at the plate, an errant throw allowed Rohan Sheth to reach first safely as Kulkarni scored.
Before the locals could get too excited, AS came back to turn a more traditional double play to limit West Windsor-Plainsboro to one run.
“The multiple double plays they turned hurt,” Kulkarni said.
Kulkarni had also seen Cohen, the lone player to reach base during his streak, come around to score an unearned run in the top half of that inning, leaving WW-P in a 4-1 hole after four. Cohen reached on an error, stole second base, advanced to third on a fly ball, then scored on a squeeze bunt by Tanner Levin.
“Our coaches
St. Louis Cincinnati Milwaukee Pittsburgh
Los Angeles San Diego Giants Colorado Arizona
Saturday’s games
_ 4 8 8 8 1⁄2
Washington 5, Miami 4, 7 innings, 1st game
Pittsburgh 12, Milwaukee 5 Miami 5, Washington 3, 7 innings, 2nd game
Atlanta 6, Philadelphia 5
St. Louis 3, Cincinnati 0 Chicago White Sox 7, Chicago Cubs 4 San Diego 13, Houston 2
Giants 5, Arizona 1
L.A. Dodgers 4, Colorado 3
N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets, ppd.
Sunday’s games
9 11 11 7
W
22 18 14 13 13
Washington 9, Miami 3 Pittsburgh 5, Milwaukee 4 St. Louis 6, Cincinnati 2 tell us 8 15 15 17
L
8 12 16 15 16 .529 .423 .423 .292
Pct
.733 .600 .467 .464 .448
3 5 1⁄2 5 1⁄2 8 1⁄2
GB
there are three parts of the game — hitting, pitching and defense — and we need to do at least two of them well to be successful,” said Kulkarni, who had one of his team’s five hits, while Hastings had two. “We didn’t have a lot of hits today, and our defense was not as sharp as we needed it to be.”
Atlantic Shore chased Kulkarni in the fifth inning when a pair of hits and a pair of stolen bases by Meyers and Wagner led to two more runs. After Meyers scored on a sacrifice fly by Cook, Meyers came home on a double by Lapointe.
Lapointe also crossed the plate to make the score, 7-1, when he stole third, then hurried home on a wild pitch before relief pitcher Devin Singh got the third out.
The visitors tacked on four more runs in the top of the sixth to put the 10run rule into effect, only to see scrappy West WindsorPlainsboro get a chance to extend the game when it again loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the frame.
Chicago Cubs 2, Chicago White Sox 1 Giants 6, Arizona 1
L.A. Dodgers 11, Colorado 3
San Diego 5, Houston 3
N.Y. Yankees at N.Y. Mets, ppd. Philadelphia at Atlanta
Monday’s games
Miami (Lopez 2-1) at Washington (Voth 0-2), 6:05 p.m.
Chicago Cubs (Mills 2-2) at Detroit (Mize 0-0), 7:10 p.m.
Cincinnati (Bauer 3-0) at Milwaukee (Anderson 1-2), 8:10 p.m.
Kansas City (Keller 3-0) at St. Louis (Flaherty 1-0), 8:15 p.m. Colorado (Castellani 0-1) at Arizona (Kelly 3-2), 9:40 p.m.
Tuesday’s games
Philadelphia at Washington, 6:05 p.m. Chicago Cubs at Detroit, 7:10 p.m. Miami at N.Y. Mets, 7:10 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees at Atlanta, 7:10 p.m. Cincinnati at Milwaukee, 8:10 p.m. Pittsburgh at Chicago White Sox, 8:10 p.m.
Kansas City at St. Louis, 8:15 p.m. Seattle at San Diego, 9:10 p.m. Colorado at Arizona, 9:40 p.m. L.A. Dodgers at Giants, 9:45 p.m.