SBAA Black 11’s win East Coast Classic

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   The South Brunswick Athletic Association’s 11-year-old Black All-Star team traveled to Reading on Father’s Day weekend and emerged with the East Coast Tournament Baseball Summer Classic championship. SBAA won two games on Saturday to secure a playoff berth and earned the No. 1 seed with a win on Sunday. The Vikes took it from there with a pair of playoff victories.
   SBAA opened against the Jersey Bandits, which draws from Bergen County and Suffern, N.Y. With South Brunswick trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth, Colin Muchanic doubled, Michael Heyer walked and Michael Mastandino hit an RBI single. Chris Palumbo then laid down a squeeze bunt to score Heyer and tie it, and run-scoring singles by Juan Perdomo and Jordan Smith put SB ahead en route to a 5-4 win.
   A five-run second inning backed the superb pitching of Perdomo and Michael Muha in game two as the Vikings beat the Montco (Pa.) Mudcats, 7-1. Newcomer D.J. Roche slammed a homer to pace the offense.
   In game three, Michael Weisgerber threw five innings of one-run ball as SBAA took another 7-1 win, this time over the Tioga County Athletics. Muha led off the game with a homer and finished with three RBI. Jonathan Foss, seeing his first action of the season after healing from a broken wrist, had a big game at the bat and in center field. His return was vital as the Vikings lost the services of center fielder and pitcher Jared Kling to an injured arm.
   In their first playoff game, South had a rematch with the Jersey Bandits and came away with a 9-4 win. The Bandits took a 2-0 lead but in the bottom of the second, Tyler Smith hit an RBI single to put the Vikings on the board. Consecutive hits by Muha, Perdomo, Jordan Smith, Weisgerber and Muchanic led to five more runs en route to a six-run inning. Winning pitcher Perdomo, Muha and Mastandino held the Bandits in check. Muha’s arm was also impressive behind the plate as he threw out five would-be base stealers.
   In the tournament final, South rolled to an 8-2 victory over the Chester County (Pa.) Crawdads. Chester had scored 29 runs in its four previous playoff games. Jordan Smith, winner of game one, held Chester to two runs in five innings. Leading 4-2 in the fifth, South blew it open. Muha and Perdomo led off with hits, Jordan Smith hit a two-run double and Weisgerber and Heyer added RBI hits. As he did in three of the four previous tournament wins, Mastandino came on to shut the door in the last inning to help the Vikings celebrate.
8-YEAR-OLD
   The 8’s opened the North Brunswick Tournament with an 8-3 win over the Hillsborough Heat. Sean Keenan allowed one hit and struck out seven in three innings, and Nick Veglia struck out two and allowed one run over two innings in relief. Veglia was also solid behind the plate.
   Colin Quigley reached base three times and scored twice. Vince Catalfamo had a single, two walks and a run scored and Danny Strickland played a strong first base. Tommy Fisher had a walk and played strong defense at third and first base. Brian Oates had an RBI single and made a nice play at third base with the bases loaded to end a Hillsborough rally.
   Connor Walker played strong defense in left and right field. Frank Herron scored two runs and Ian Rodriguez, Gabriel Nunez and Jesse Tainow each reached base twice and scored once. Chris Huber made a sparkling play at second base in the bottom of the fifth inning to help preserve the win. The Vikings put the game away with a five-run third inning.