H-EW 14’s place second in districts

By: Sean Moylan
   After posting an 8-3 win over Ewing on Friday the 13th at Bacon Field in Hopewell, the Hightstown-East Windsor 14-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star baseball squad appeared to be primed and ready to repeat as District One Champions. After all, winning two big games in one day is nothing new for this talented baseball team.
   But fate has a way of playing tricks on people, and Nottingham beat Hightstown-East Windsor, 12-2, in Saturday’s championship game.
   Earlier in the tourney, Hightstown-East Windsor had beaten Montgomery (4-1) and Hamilton (2-0) before losing a 6-3 game to Nottingham in last Thursday’s winners’ bracket final.
   Going into championship game on Saturday, Hightstown-East Windsor’s pitching was in good shape with big game hurler Steven Kowalski on the mound. But the Nottingham batters were on a hot streak that even Kowalski, with his incredible pinpoint control, could not stop.
   Nottingham scored four in the first and didn’t let up until it ended the contest with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Hightstown worked the bases loaded in the fifth, but could plate just one run.
   Hightstown-East Windsor catcher and leader Eric Strano had a hit, two steals and scored a run. Meanwhile Kevin Monahan and Alex Petak each had a hit and a RBI. Michael Noebels and Cory Karagjozi also had base knocks for Chuck Petty’s Hightstown-East Windsor squad. But it was not enough.
   This season, Hightstown-East Windsor added some pitching depth and it used it to beat Ewing 8-5 in Friday’s losers’ bracket final. Allowing just three runs (two earned) on six hits in six innings of work, Tyler Schickner picked up a well-earned win over Ewing. Noebels pitched the final inning to close it out for Hightstown-East Windsor.
   Monahan had a huge day at the dish, going 2-for-2 with two ribbies, two steals and two runs scored. John Indrikovic had three hits and drove in a run. Schickner collected a pair of hits, a run and a RBI in the game. Josh Pacifico had a hit and knocked in two runs. Strano was 1-for-2 with a run scored and a RBI. Karagjozi and Kowalski both did their job at the top of the order as each scored twice and had a base hit. In fact, Karagjozi’s double was the only extra-base hit of the contest for the winning team. Robert Murphy had a hit and a RBI too as Hightstown-East Windsor smacked a lucky 13 hits on Friday the 13th.
   In last Thursday’s 6-3 loss to Nottingham, Strano actually held Nottingham to its least amount of runs (six) in the tournament. And three of those runs were unearned. Yet, Strano, ever the perfectionist, thought he could have done much better.
   "I didn’t think I did too well. Personally, I’m more confident pitching from a full wind-up. But I gave up some hits (six) and walks (six) and had to pitch from the stretch. I didn’t have it," said Strano, who is a stand-up player and the best team leader any club could have. "Our nerves got the best of us."
   Previously, Strano had hurled a gem for Hightstown-East Windsor in last year’s 13-year-old Babe Ruth World Series. Hightstown-East Windsor did not hit well in Thursday’s contest. In fact, Kowalski (RBI) and Indrikovic accounted for the club’s only two hits in the game. Karagjozi knocked in a run while John Von Ahnen, Noebels and Murphy each scored a run.
   Hightstown-East Windsor ended up with a 3-2 mark in the tournament. Hightstown-East Windsor’s top hurlers (Kowalski, Corey Vono, Strano and Schickner) did an excellent job overall. The team just didn’t quite hit the ball with the same authority as last year’s 13’s did. In fact, this year Nottingham dominated Distrcit One in very much the same manner as Hightstown-East Windsor did last season. But if Hightstown-East Windsor hits the way it’s capable of hitting, it can win it all next year as 15’s.