C-P 10’s alive in District 12

Gross’ pitching, Porreca’s HR the keys to game one victory

Rich Fisher
   Two games into the District 12 Tournament, the Cranbury-Plainsboro Little League All-Stars were in a familiar position.
   One win, one loss, and one big hope that they could win the next two to avoid tie-breaker situations for advancement.
   C-P opened with a 13-3, five-inning victory over HTRBA last Saturday. That was followed by an 11-1 home loss to a quality Allentown team on Tuesday night.
   Wednesday, the C-P/Millstone game was called because of rain, and played Thursday night (after press time).
   That was a key game for C-P, which should defeat an undermanned North Trenton team in its Pool A finale tonight (Friday).
   "I’m hoping we’ll go 3-1 and not 2-2," manager Ray Cella said after Wednesday’s rainout. "Whenever we’ve gone 2-2 we’ve gotten into those tiebreakers and always lost the tiebreakers. We don’t want to have to deal with that again. We’ve been down that road too many times."
   C-P’s road through the pool started in impressive fashion, as it took HTRBA’s best shot early in the game before rallying for the victory.
   Cranbury-Plainsboro took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Luke Apuzzi drew a one-out walk, went to second on an error and scored on Bennett Greenberg’s single.
   Ben Gross was then touched for three runs in the bottom of the second, but that would be it for the Hamilton bats.
   C-P bounced back immediately in the top of the third. Mike Mazzeo and Gross smacked lead-off singles and, one-out later, Vinny Porreca belted a three-run homer that served as the impetus for victory.
   "It just changed the whole game," Cella said. "Their pitcher was doing well and as soon as that ball cleared the fence, you looked at the pitcher, his shoulders were slumped, a sigh came out and he ended up walking the next two batters. And it proved to our kids they could come back from a deficit."
   C-P didn’t stop there, as Jack Andres and Apuzzi walked, Travis Britt singled to load the bases and Connor McCormick delivered an RBI single. Apuzzi later scored the inning’s fifth run to make it a 6-3 game.
   In the fourth, Gross hit a leadoff single and eventually scored on a wild pitch. C-P put it away with a six-run sixth, as Andres had a two-run single and Mazzeo, Gross and Apuzzi also drove in runs.
   Gross threw two strong innings after the second, and Hart finished up in the fifth by only allowing a bunt single.
   "I thought we played well," Cella said. "And we got a great game from Ben. He threw four innings of one-hit baseball, he kept his composure when we lost the lead and he kept us in the game. He was the reason why we won. He went out there and he shut them down."
   Offensively, Mazzeo and Gross were both 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, Porreca added two walks to his big homer, and Andres had a hit, two RBI and two runs.
   Things went a little differently three nights later.
   In the top of the first, C-P put runners on first and second with one out but failed to score. Allentown then exploded for six runs in the bottom of the inning, with Thomas McCarthy’s three-run double serving as the big hit. McCarthy is the son of New York Mets radio announcer Tom McCarthy.
   C-P could never get its offense going, mustering its only run in the fourth when Hart singled, went to second on an error and scored on two wild pitches. It was one of just two hits C-P had on the night.
   The locals also had a tough night in the field, as two errors led to four unearned runs.
   "We threw strikes, and we knew they were going to hit the ball," Cella said. "We just didn’t make the plays we ordinarily make, and that made us pay."
   Did Allentown’s big first inning take it out of C-P?
   "It might have, but as soon as they came off the field we reminded them that we were down 3-1 to HTRBA," Cella said. "We’ve been behind already in this tournament and we responded. We just have to give Allentown credit, they played better than us. They were the better than us on that day."