Big innings prove costly
By: Bob Nuse
HAMILTON Three bad innings spelled trouble for the West Windsor-Plainsboro 15-year-old Babe Ruth all-star team in the Southern New Jersey State Tournament.
The first bad inning came in its opener, when a six-run first helped lead Pennsville to a 7-6 win. The second and third came Tuesday night, when a four-run second and a three-run sixth lifted Gibbsboro-Voorhees to a 7-6 win in the losers’ bracket, eliminating WW-P from the tournament.
"We really played well other than those few innings," said WW-P manager Ted Phelan, whose team bounced back from the opening loss to win three straight games in the losers’ bracket. "It was just one of those things where we made a couple mistakes and they hit the ball. But I’m real proud of the way the kids battled back after that first loss. We just came up a little bit short in the end."
WW-P needed a win Wednesday night, then three more to have fought its way all the way back from that opening loss. But even after elimination, WW-P walked away feeling like it could have won a state title.
"I’d take this team into any tournament with the other teams that were here and feel like we had a good chance to win," Phelan said. "It’s tough when you lose that first game. We came back and won three games after that. We won four in the district tournament. So these kids went 7-2 in the two tournaments, which is a nice run."
WW-P claimed the league’s first District One championship at the 15-year-old level this season. It went to the Southern New Jersey tournament hoping to win, but came away a little short.
"I certainly feel like we can play with any of the teams there," Phelan said. "We lost two games by one run. We won three other games."
In fact, of the three teams remaining in the tournament after WW-P’s loss, two of them had posted one-run wins over WW-P, while the other (Nottingham) lost to WW-P in the District One tournament.
In Wednesday’s game, WW-P led, 2-0, then fell behind, 4-2. But a run in the second, two in the third and another in the fifth gave them a 6-4 lead heading into the top of the sixth.
"We felt pretty good there," Phelan said. "Evan (Smith) was pitching well and they had the bottom of the order coming up. But they got a couple hits and were able to score three runs to take the lead. I still liked our chances there because I felt like we could at least get a run to tie it, but we didn’t score those last two innings."
Dennis Cannon, who hit the ball very well the entire tournament, had three hits in the loss on Wednesday. Smith and Ryan Phelan added two hits apiece in the loss.
WW-P had stayed alive with a 12-5 win over Atlantic Shore on Tuesday night. Phil Trachtenberg went the distance to pick up the win on the mound before heading to Europe for a three-week-long student ambassador program
"I just wanted to play the best game I could and I had all the support of my fielders," said Trachtenberg, who scattered seven hits to pick up the win. "Everyone was staying positive, even after we got down, 3-0. I think my teammates were keeping me up and focused. They were making the plays and no one had lapses."
Trachtenberg wound up winning two games on the mound in the tournament.
"We’ve got a good hitting team and that makes it easier," he said. "I haven’t started for a while. But the team needed another pitcher and I just stepped in and we got it done."
For nearly a month, WW-P had been finding a way to get it done in two different tournaments. This last time, it just came up a little bit short.

