By Rich Fisher, Sports Editor
A short pool led to a short stay for the Cranbury-Plainsboro 11-year-olds in the District 12 Tournament.
C-P surrounded one impressive win with two heart-breaking losses as it finished 1-2 and failed to advance from pool play for the first time in its existence.
The 11’s dropped an excruciating, nine-inning 6-5 decision to Robbinsville to open the tournament, and dropped a 3-2 contest to Allentown to end it. In the middle was a 20-1 win over North Trenton/Chambersburg.
”A bounce of the ball both way, and we would be moving on,” manager Jeff Shanaberger said. “But that’s baseball at any level. Sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don’t.
”We were in a short pool, so there was no margin for error by any team. We didn’t get a fourth game so we’re going home early for the first time.”
In the Robbinsville game, C-P got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the first when Hayden Reyes and Ken Shanaberger each cut down runners at the plate.
”At this level, that’s a tough play,” Jeff Shanaberger said. “But we work on it in practice. They knew what to do and got the job done.”
C-P carried a 5-4 lead into the sixth but with two outs an error let a run score to tie it.
The game was extended when catcher Austin McGinley made a tag at the plate to prevent the winning run from scoring and in the ninth, Shanaberger made a leaping catch to temporarily preserve the game. But the winning run scored on another close play at the plate later in the frame.
”It was a heroic effort by McGinley to try and make the play,” Jeff Shanaberger said. “It was really close.”
Against a hearty but undermanned NT/Chambersburg team, John Tyndall fired a four-inning one-hitter and C-P batted around in all three innings it hit. McGinley was 2-for-2 with a double, two walks and three RBI; Anthony Rodriguez had an RBI double while Matt Hart and Daniel Johnson also doubled. Every C-P batter reached base.
Then came Sunday’s disappointing finish, in which C-P had a run taken off the board on an appeal play for a runner leaving base early.
McGinley had an RBI double, while Reyes was 2-for-2 with a triple and run scored. Hart pitched five strong innings and Zach Crossey put out an Allentown rally in the top of the sixth.
In the bottom of the sixth, with McGinley on second, Hart hit a smash to short that was fielded cleanly, and the C-P runner was just nipped at first base to end the threat.
Cranbury made several big defensive plays in the game, including one by Crossey when he took a comebacker, faked a throw to first and got the runner at third in a rundown.
”I’m real proud of the kids,” Shanaberger said. “They continue to amaze me with their play defensively. I get complimented by the competition all the time about how well they catch the ball and play smart baseball.”
Unfortunately for C-P, all the smarts in the world can’t control the way a baseball bounces sometimes.
