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HAMILTON » Even playing as the visitors on their own field could not slow the Sunnybrae 12-Year-Old Little Leaguers in the District 12 Tournament.
This group which won districts as 10YOs and 11YOs survived a battle with its crosstown rival, Nottingham, for a 6-1 win Saturday, its second victory in the tournament.
Now Sunnybrae will play Robbinsville in the winners’ bracket final at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Sunnybrae Little League complex, a game which will be video-streamed live on wbcbsports.com or on WBCB’s Facebook Live page. R’ville defeated West Windsor, 5-0, Saturday.
Nottingham will play East Windsor at 8 p.m. Tuesday in an elimination game at Sunnybrae. East Windsor stayed alive with an eight-inning, 6-5 win over Bordentown Saturday morning.
“I wasn’t nervous,” Sunnybrae’s starting pitcher Frankie Mazzella said. “I felt confident.”
Before the left-handed 7th-graderto-be even headed to the mound, his team took lead to stay in the top of the first when Max Pelzer singled with two outs and advanced on a throwing error. AJ Zuccarello, who reached base all four times up, followed with a single to the right-field fence to score the fleet-footed Pelzer.
The 1-0 lead lasted until the third inning when Mazzella helped himself with a two-out single that plated Anthony
O’Rourke with another unearned run.
After Josh Klena walked to load the bases that same frame, Nick Conti, running for Zuccarello, scored on a wild pitch by Nottingham starter Matthew Smith.
Matt Morris was hit by a pitch to reload the bases, then Jonathan Posivak came through with a two-run single to give manager Anthony Zuccarello’s squad a 5-0 edge.
“We’ve been doing pretty good at hitting,” Mazzella said. “Once we put up some runs, it gave me some room to work with.”
The 12-year-old southpaw made sure the lead stood up by scattering hits to AJ Cimino and Christian Morency over the first three innings.
The fourth inning was a different story as manager John Cimino’s team doubled its hits on singles by Carlo Pihokken and Marco Giambrone. Giambrone’s hit scored special pinch runner John Giblin, who was in for Anthony Ricigliano, who’d reached base via an error to start the frame.
Leading, 5-1, Mazzella settled back down to strike out Smith and Karsen Guinn to quell the uprising.
A sacrifice fly from Klena brought Pelzer (3-for-4) across the plate with an insurance run in the top of the sixth.
Then Joaquin Gutierrez replaced Mazzella with one out in the bottom of the sixth and retired Cimino and Giambrone to lock down the five-hitter. Sunnybrae 104001—6111 Nottingham 000 100 — 1 5 3
RBIs: Zuccarello, Mazzella, Klena, Posivak 2 (S), Giambrone (N). WP — Mazzella; LP — Smith.