Baseball all-stars alive in District 12 tournament
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Matt Frawley hopes this year is the start of something to build on for the Princeton Little League 10-year-old baseball all-stars.
Princeton went 4-0 in pool play of the District 12 tournament, then split its first two games of bracket play this past weekend.
After opening bracket play with a 10-6 loss to Robbinsville on Saturday, Princeton bounced back to beat HTRBA, 7-3, on Sunday to stay alive in the eight-team tournament. Princeton will be back in action Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. when it takes on either Nottingham or Millstone-Roosevelt in a game that will be played at Nottingham.
”We played much more like a typical Princeton team (Sunday),” said Frawley, the Princeton manager. “We were tight in our game against Robbinsville. But we relaxed and played much better against HTRBA. Even the first game, it was a 6-6 game and then we gave up four runs in the bottom of the fifth.”
Princeton bounced back with a solid win over HTRBA on Sunday. Teddy Marttila picked up the win on the mound by pitching into the fifth inning and allowing just one run.
”He pitched really well,” Frawley said. “We were up 7-1 when he left the game. And we did a nice job with the bats and fielded well.”
Marttila and Owen Smith both had two hits in the game, with Marttila driving in two runs and Smith driving in three.
Princeton reached bracket play by winning all four of its games in pool play.
”It’s been a good tournament for us,” Frawley said. “Princeton has had good teams once in a while. Sometimes we show up and people assume we’re going to lose to some of the teams that have traditionally done well. We keep telling the kids that this team has a lot of potential.
”We still have a lot of work to get done to get to the top. But hopefully we’ll play together and keep improving. I want to see these kids stay together and get to high school and think they can win. Hopefully they can do that.”
This year’s 10-year-old Princeton team consists of Tim Frawley, Colin Taylor, Owen Smith, Tommy Pecora, Teddy Marttila, Matt Lambert, Joey Studholme, Jaoquin Burt, Charlie Doran, Thomas Itkoff, Owen Lindenfeldar, Justin Marciano and Aaron Lichtblau.