By: Rich Fisher
WEST WINDSOR After running roughshod through the first three games of Pool play, the Cranbury-Plainsboro 10-year-old All-Stars have hit an offensive snag in the District 12 tournament.
The locals dropped a 3-1 decision to HTRBA on Sunday in a game that decided who would win Pool B. In the first game of bracket play, C-P was the victim of a James Ehret five-inning no-hitter as Ewing took a 10-0 victory at West Windsor.
Cranbury’s back is now against the wall as it tries to stave off elimination tonight (Friday) against Allentown. Game time is 6 p.m. at West Windsor.
"This was tough," coach David Velez said after the loss to Ewing. "We just weren’t hitting, just like the last game. You can have poor fielding but you still have to score. If you don’t score, you’re not going to win no matter how many great fielding plays you make."
Unfortunately for C-P, they did little of that against a talented Ewing squad. Ewing combined 12 hits with four C-P errors, and also caught C-P napping several times with delayed steals. The locals best chance to score came when Steve Katz reached on an error in the fourth and got to third with one out. But Ehret struck out two straight to end the threat.
Katz, who threw a four-inning one-hitter in the opening game of the tournament, suffered the loss while John Redmond pitched the final four innings.
"Johnny came in and did well," Velez said. "I started with Steven to see if he could hold them for two innings. He did fine, but the fielding didn’t help.
"It was frustrating. You want a guy to hit the ball to the infield, which they did. We just didn’t catch it."
The locals had to be enthused by their play against HTRBA, as the game was tied 1-1 before the Hamilton juggernaut scored two in the sixth inning to win it. That left C-P at 3-1 in pool play, although Velez felt playing teams like West End and 6-11 did not do much to prepare his team for the final eight.
"I wasn’t happy with the teams we went up against that much, because two of them were too easy," the coach said. "When we beat Florence, I thought we had a real good chance of going all the way.
"HTRBA didn’t show me anything that impressed me. We just didn’t hit the ball. If you don’t hit the ball, get across that plate, if you don’t score you can’t win."
But at least C-P was in that game. The locals took themselves out of it with defensive lapses against Ewing.
"The fielding was great against HTRBA," Velez said. "In this game, the fielding was bad. You can’t really tell if we had a chance because we didn’t keep it close."
Cranbury-Plainsboro had three days off to prepare for tonight, and Velez was hoping the time off would give his team a chance to regroup.
"It’s time to cover all the mistakes, do a little batting practice," the coach said. "The kids just need to come up to that plate and take charge."
