Cranbury-Plainsboro 11’s seek win

By: Rich Fisher
   Ed Sekelsky would like to bottle the first and fourth innings of Wednesday’s game with Bordentown.
   As for the middle two frames, well, they can just go away and never come back.
   Sekelsky’s Cranbury-Plainsboro 11-year-old All-Stars played a flawless first and fourth against Bordentown at HTRBA’s Van Horn Field, but the Burlington County squad tallied five runs in the second and 10 in the third en route to a 15-0 victory.
   That left C-P at 0-3 in pool play, as it lost 17-1 to Ewing in the opener and 14-4 to Allentown on Monday night.
   All that remains is a contest with HTRBA at Allentown Saturday, as Cranbury-Plainsboro attempts to salvage its remaining game.
   "We’re still practicing every day, having some pizza parties," Sekelsky said. "You have to play baseball, you have to throw pitches, you have to play the innings. That’s what you’re here for."
   Dalton Sekelsky threw just five pitches in the first inning against Bordentown, allowing a harmless single. It looked like it might be the start of a pitcher’s duel, as Sekelsky seemed to be matching Bordentown’s Justin Goeke pitch for pitch.Sekelsky was touched for two runs in the bottom of the second but appeared to be out of the inning when he got two quick outs. But errors were committed on the next two batters, and what should have been a two-run inning was suddenly extended. Tommy Walters made the miscues hurt when he blasted a three-run homer.
   In the third, Bordentown teed off for eight hits and effectively blew the game open.
   In the final inning, Alex Chen saw his first pitching action of he tournament and retired Bordentown on three harmless pop-ups.
   "We started out great," Sekelsky said. And then Chen pitched really well.
   "We got a good look at two kids who hadn’t pitched before, Austin Plachy and Alex Chen. Now we knew we can go to them in the second tournament we play this summer."
   C-P’s best offensive showing of the tournament came against Allentown, as the locals scored four runs in the third inning to cut a 7-0 deficit to 7-4. Jay Mastrangelo had an RBI triple, Sekelsky had an RBI single, Patrick McCormick had a single and run scored and Prachetas Fnu and Chris Kenny added RBI singles. But Allentown ended it in the fourth with seven runs.
   "That was a better game for us," Ed Sekelsky said. "During the first three innings, the kids were having a good time, they were in the game."
   Despite the 0-3 record, the manager has seen some highlights.
   "Some of them are playing like true All-Stars," he said. "We’ve still got to tighten up our defense, we’ve made too many errors. Half the team is working hard and doing the right thing, but we’re giving too many extra outs to the other team."