By Tony Piscotta, Special Writer
When the comeback kids from Sunnybrae Little League scored four runs in the second inning to tie the game after Princeton had taken a 4-0 lead in the first, Princeton Little League 10-year-old starting pitcher Jake Renda felt he let his team down.
But once Princeton re-took the lead in the second, Renda made sure that wouldn’t happen again.
Renda allowed just two hits the rest of the game and Tommy Delany provided clutch relief pitching as Princeton defeated losers’ bracket champion Sunnybrae, 9-5, to win the District 12 10-year-old championship.
”That four-run inning I was pretty upset but that just made me want it more,” said Renda, who along with Ben Petrone gave the Princeton team two of the top pitchers in the tournament. “I came back throwing harder and throwing more strikes,” .
Renda said Petrone, who pitched in Princeton’s 11-7 win over Sunnybrae in the winners’ bracket final on Wednesday, gave him some helpful advice.
”I know from Ben, he pitched against them before, he told me where to throw it — outside to some people,” Renda said. “I would throw high to them because I thought they wouldn’t be able to hit the high ones. With two strikes I would throw it outside to try and finish them off.”
”Renda carried us pitching-wise through the whole tournament and he did a great job,” Princeton manager Mike Petrone said. “He had a rough second inning. He stayed with it and persevered and got the job done.”
While Renda was the story pitching-wise, Ben Petrone was the hitting star — finishing 3-for-3 with a walk, scoring three runs, and driving in a run. Delany chipped in with three singles and 2 RBI.
But as was the case all tournament, Princeton’s win was a team effort as seemingly everybody chipped in.
”We’re all great up and down our lineup,” said Renda. “Our team is feeling really good.”
Princeton took the lead for good in the second inning, scoring two runs.
Dylan Angelucci reached base when he was hit by a pitch to start the inning and took second on a wild pitch. Petrone’s single scored Angelucci from second base and Petrone would come around to score no Delany’s RBI single.
Princeton added to its lead in the fourth, when Dylan Petrone scored after reaching on an error, and then added two important insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth thanks to Jason Ramirez’ double and Delany’s third single.
”Sunnybrae is a comeback team so we were really looking towards the last couple of innings for them to come back,” Renda admitted.
When Renda reached the 75-pitch limit in the fifth inning, Mike Petrone turned to Delany to finish things off.
”Tommy’s tough as nails. That’s why I had him out there in the last inning and he got the job done,” said Mike Petrone.
”I was very nervous close to the end but after we won it was awesome,” said Delany, who allowed one single in two walks in his two innings of relief. “I haven’t pitched this tournament but I think I knew I was going to come in closing. I was really excited through the game and once I came in and got that final out I felt really, really good.”
And about that “tough as nails” thing?
”I was on his basketball team and I always got hurt and just got right back up, Delany explained. “I was on his baseball team and I broke my wrist and when I came back I hit a big double.”
For Mike Petrone, the fact that all of the team members contributed at one time or another through the tournament was especially satisfying.
”We have a group of kids who are very good baseball players who love to play, who work hard everyday and they earned this championship,” Petrone said. “They really earned it by the way they worked.
”Our theme the whole tournament was, ‘Swing the bat, swing the bat, swing the bat. Hit the ball, get the ball in play.’ We kept doing that and that’s what won the game and the tournament for us,”
Mike Petrone was also impressed with Sunnybrae.
”This is what I have to say about Sunnybrae, it’s a group of gentlemen who play the game right,” he said. “They play hard and fight to the last out and I have the utmost respect for Sunnybrae — every kid on that team and particularly the coaches who did a great job.”
With the win Princeton advances to the Section 3 tournament that will be held at Nottingham Little League’s Sayen Park. Princeton was scheduled to face Middletown in its first game on Monday night.
