All-stars on wrong side of rally at end
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
After rallying to reach the final, the Robbinsville 10-year-old all-star baseball team was the victim of a Manasquan-Brielle rally in the Section 3 tournament championship.
Manasquan rallied for a 12-11 win over Robbinsville on a walk-off grand slam Saturday in Lacey. In the game, Robbinsville had 19 hits, but 18 of them were singles. Three big hits from Manasquan proved the difference as they got a pair of grand slams and a two-run home run.
”After the game, they were upset, but they got over it,” said Robbinsville manager Pat Tuffy. “We lost, they beat us, they were a very good team. We played well and we lost. I was happy with the way we played. If we lost and played badly, I probably would have been upset. They were just better that day.”
There were plenty of good days for Robbinsville this summer. After winning the District 12 championship, they won three games in the sections before bowing in the finals.
”The experience of going outside the district and seeing how some other teams are and how they play, it’s great experience,” Tuffy said. “It gives them a lot of confidence, and losing, it’ll help drive them to go farther next year. They got a little taste of it. It’s fun. We travel to the games as a group and have a lot of fun together.”
Members of the all-star squad are: Garrett Bilgrav, Nick Campion, Chris Conti, Justin Cooper, Luke Franzoni, Jack Gillmer, Danny Griffin, Tyler Lehmann, Nick Matt, Anthony Palagano and McGwire Tuffy. They were bidding to win the Saturday game to force the if-necessary game Sunday in the double-elimination tournament.
Just to get to the final was tough after losing to Manasquan, 18-11, in the winners’ bracket final. That loss forced them into the losers’ bracket against Marlboro, a team that they had already beaten, 16-3, in the tournament opener.But later in the tournament, in a test of their pitching depth, the Tantum Park bunch met Marlboro again in a much tighter elimination game to go to the championship. Things did not look good for Robbinsville when they fell behind by seven runs.
”We scratched back,” Tuffy said. “Tyler Lehmann had a two-run single in the bottom of the fifth, and we held them in the top of the sixth.
”We were down a lot of pitchers. We had to throw some guys who typically don’t throw that much and they ended up pitching well for us. The whole tournament, we hit the ball well.”
Robbinsville opened the tournament in the play-in game by topping Marlboro, 16-3. Lehmann struck out three and he and Campion combined to limit Marlboro to two hits in the game. McGwire Tuffy was 3-for-4 with a double and four RBI. Matt was also 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI. Campion had two singles and two RBI.
Robbinsville advanced to take on Holbrook, which they topped, 12-1, the next day. Campion was 3-for-4 to lead the offense, while Matt struck out three in three innings while combining with Tuffy to limit Holbrook.
There was no let-up from the Robbinsville offense, even in their first loss to Manasquan in the next game and their rally against Marlboro set up a rematch for the District 12 champions. Robbinsville swung the bats well again, but couldn’t hold off the big Manasquan hits.
”We’re a very, very good offensive team,” the elder Tuffy said. “We can hit all the way through. All 11 of them are very good hitters.”
Most of the 10s group has been together since they were playing 8-year-old baseball, and they have already enjoyed a great amount of success. They entered a pair of tournaments last summer and won them both. They captured the crown in their first year competing in the district, and that allowed them to advance to their first section tournament.
”I felt good,” Tuffy said. “Our team was loose. There’s an unknown. You don’t know how the other teams are. You’ve never seen them. I know how our team plays. I thought if they play Robbinsville baseball, I thought we’d do pretty well.”
Robbinsville proved that they can play with anyone in the section. Tuffy is hoping that the group can stay together as 11-year-olds next year, though it’s possible some of the team could go up to play on the 12s all-star district team.
”It’s a lot of work with practice and games to get ready for this,” Tuffy said. “Nobody wanted to be done yet, but we’ll have a little break and get into fall baseball.”