The Hillsborough Heat 14-and-under baseball team won the U.S. Amateur Baseball League American West Division (A League) Championship last Wednesday night, June 17, by defeating the Branchburg Bulldogs, 12-2, in 6 innings at Ann Van Middlesworth Park.
The Heat, who finished the USABL regular season with an 8-1 record, had defeated the Hamilton A’s, 5-2, in their first playoff game to advance to the championship game. By winning the division championship, the Heat earned a spot in the upcoming USABL World Series tournament.
Although the Heat has a number of strong pitchers, they didn’t need many on this night. Starter Chris Zickert mixed in his fastballs and off-speed pitches well to keep the Bulldogs off balance most of the game.
The Bulldogs flexed some muscle in the top of the first inning when, with two outs, their third hitter hit a long home run to the top of the right center field hill. They managed to score only an unearned run in the third inning the rest of the way.
Zickert helped himself by picking off three runners, and was aided by team defense, including notable plays by shortstop Andrew Lagerman, third baseman Joey Talamo, leftfielder Brian Chung and Stephen Trampe at first base.
Offensively, after giving up the one run in the top of the first inning, the Heat wasted no time getting it back. Nick Scerbo led off the bottom of the first with a perfectly placed bunt down the third-base line for a hit. Scerbo stole second base and moved to third on a ground out. With one out, he scored on a hard-hit grounder to third base by Dan Salazar.
In the second inning, Michael Golankiewicz scored on an RBI single by Trampe. In the third, Erik Hesthag scored on a hard-hit ball by Vincent Gambardella, giving the Heat a 3-2 lead going into the fourth inning.
In the bottom of fourth, the first six batters for the Heat reached base, beginning with singles by Zickert, Golankiewicz and RBI singles by Trampe and Talamo. That stretched the Heat’s lead to 5-2. Matt Popadiuk then won a battle, fouling off multiple pitches and working out a RBI walk. John Miliotis also worked out a RBI walk. Scerbo then drove in a run with his second of three hits in the game, and Gambardella drove in two runs with a hard-hit single to the outfield, stretching the lead to 9-2.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Popadiuk, Miliotis, and Hesthag all reached base safely to load them the bags with one out. Lagerman worked out an RBI walk, Gambardella singled to drive in his third run of the game, and Salazar walked to drive in Hesthag, who scored his third run to give the Heat a 12-2 game-ending lead.
The Heat 14-and under players are all residents of Hillsborough, and 9 of the 12 boys have been with the team since it started playing competitive baseball six years ago as a nine-and-under team. The team will play in 4 or 5 more tournaments over the remaining five weeks of the season, but this will also be the final year the boys play together as the Hillsborough Heat, as they will all enter high school next year.
This USABL championship marked the 12th league or tournament championship in the Heat’s 6-year run.
