By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
It was just what a championship series should be — well played between two good teams with the outcome undecided until the very end.
When all was said and done, West Windsor-Plainsboro had emerged with a Southern New Jersey championship in the Babe Ruth 16-18 state tournament. The contingent from WW-P defeated Washington Township, 6-3, in the deciding third game of the best-of-three championship series.
With the title, WW-P advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Regional, which was scheduled to begin on Thursday in Onondaga, N.Y.
WW-P won Sunday’s opening game of the series, 5-4, as Logan Levine tossed a complete game and struck out seven. WW-P got all the offense it would need when Kevin Schattin hit a first inning grand slam.
Washington Township bounced back to win the second game, 8-5, later the same day to set up Monday’s deciding third game. Brandon Block pitched a complete game to earn the win. WW-P put up six runs with key hits by Mike Morabito and Block. Defensively, Block benefited from excellent plays by Schattin in center, Morabito at second, and Levine at third. When Washington Twp. threaten to mount a comeback with a base runner in the seventh inning, the runner was thrown out by WW-P catcher Tom O’Connor.
”It was two great teams and usually when good teams line up against each other and play a doubleheader you split,” WW-P manager Thomas O’Connor said of the series going to a deciding third game. “It was very exciting and really challenging.
”The first game Logan Levine pitched seven innings and struck out 12 batters and he had a good performance. It also helped us that the first three batters got on base and then Kevin Schattin hit a grand slam. We had a good feeling after that.”
WW-P split the two games Sunday, then came back to win the deciding third game on Monday to earn a spot in the regional.
”We had Brandon Block pitching and he had a very good game,” O’Connor said. “He had a bunch of strikeouts and pitched the whole game. We had some solid hitting from Mike Morabito and Brandon.
”We got to the top of the seventh and we were up 6-3. I wasn’t even playing and I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I am sure the kids who had played a doubleheader the night before were also pretty tired. We got a big play when our catcher, Tom O’Connor threw a guy out trying to steal. That was the second out and at that point we felt pretty good.”
Now WW-P has a chance to represent Southern New Jersey at the next level.
”We are very excited and pumped up to represent Southern New Jersey,” O’Connor said. “We’ll play a team that won from Maryland. We have a good group of kids. At this age a number of kids choose to either stop playing or maybe they are playing travel or American Legion. The guys we have really enjoy the game.”
There wasn’t a whole lot of turnaround time for WW-P after winning the state title as they needed to be back on the field in Upstate New York just three days later.
”It’s a lot to ask people to do,” O’Connor said of quickly making plans to travel to New York. “We never know what is going to happen. You send out brackets but I don’t think a lot of people realize that when we win this we have to be in Syracuse on Thursday.
”We’ll go up and try to represent the league and Southern New Jersey the best we can.”
