12’s survive pitchers’ duel; now face West End
By: Justin Feil
It could have been a highly rated episode of CBS’ "Survivor" show.
Friends battle it out to see who stays another day and who gets sent home.
In Sunday’s opening round of the District 12 Little League tournament, West Windsor and Cranbury-Plainsboro – two teams very familiar with each other – put forth their best efforts to advance to the winners’ bracket.
Behind the arm of Chris Ruiz and an outstanding defensive effort behind the right-hander, C-PLL survived, 1-0, to meet West End 6 p.m. Friday at West End.
West Windsor isn’t kicked off the island yet, however, as it will travel to Ewing 6 p.m. Wednesday in the double elimination tournament for 12-year-olds.
"We’ve played them a lot," confirmed C-PLL manager Joe Voigtsberger. "It was a difficult draw for both teams. A good team was going to get knocked out in the first round. We’re happy to advance."
Ruiz struck out eight West Windsor batters while walking just three and allowing three hits in going the full six innings for the win. As dazzling a performance as he had, tough-luck loser Kevin Hennessy was even better.
"I had pitched against this team before and I had success," Ruiz said. "I knew their pitcher would throw a good game. I wasn’t pitching against him though. I was just trying to get their batters out."
Hennessy, an imposing right-hander, struck out 14 batters, walked six and relinquished just a single hit – when an attempted sacrifice bunt by Chris Cornick tied Hennessy up long enough to be scored a single in the fourth inning.
"That’s Kevin Hennessy," said WW manager Tony Odachowski. "That’s typical. We knew they wouldn’t get a hit off him because they’re not the greatest hitting team. He struck out 14 batters and gave up one hit and we didn’t win. If you’re not going to hit and score, you’re not going to win. We didn’t execute at times."
West Windsor did have its chances, but couldn’t get the clutch hit. Twice in the early going, C-PLL first baseman Andrew Morgan speared line drives that could have been doubles. The second one resulted in a double play when he fired the ball to third baseman Mario Fiorentini with no outs in the second inning to stall WW’s best chance to score on the day after Mike DeGoria doubled to lead off and advanced to third on a wild pitch.
Cranbury-Plainsboro made something out of nothing to get the lone run of the game. After Dan Margiotti walked to open the top of the second inning, he stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. The next batter, Cornick, also walked to give C-PLL runners at first and third. Cornick then stole second and WW catcher Corey Collins threw to the shortstop, who remained at his position in a designed play.
Margiotti broke for home on the throw and the play worked beautifully for West Windsor as shortstop Brian Morris fired the ball back to Collins to get the C-PLL runner. But with the play, Cornick never stopped running and advanced all the way to third base. On the next wild pitch, he slid safely into home.
"I think his base running won it for us," Voigtsberger said. "He made a great play going all the way to third. It’s something we coach and talk about, but not something we coach in the game. He just saw it and kept going."
"I just ran hard like I was taught," said Cornick who caught the whole game for Ruiz. "I’m not surprised we won, but I was surprised that we scored our run without a hit."
It was enough for Ruiz and the C-PLL fielders to hold off West Windsor. They entered the game confidently because they had played them so many times before.
"The way he was pitching, I thought we would win," Cornick said. "He’s normally that good. He’s very good under pressure. We wanted him to throw a lot of fastballs and we mixed in curves, too. We’ve played against them a lot, and we go to school with some of them, so we knew pretty much what they could do."
"He got in some trouble, but our defense was able to help him," Voigtsberger said of Ruiz. "I think they had guys at second base in three innings and we got out of it. He’s just such a mental juggernaut. I think he and Hennessy are two of the best pitchers in the tournament."
And when the pitcher’s weren’t highlighting the game, C-PLL defense was. It sparkled like lit fireworks in the final inning when WW staged one final threat. After a lead-off walk to Dan Svizeny gave West Windsor life, Ruiz induced a 5-4-3 double play to fizzle any possible scoring explosion.
"I think that double play killed them," Voigtsberger said. "You just don’t see that in Little League. Tyler (Westensee) got rid of the ball so fast on the turn (at second base). It was great all-around.
"It was a great game. We didn’t seem to have the first-game jitters. We had a great game from Chris and great infield defense."