By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
In the nearly four games they have played against each other, the West Windsor-Plainsboro and Hopewell-Ewing Babe Ruth baseball 15-year-old all-stars have shown they are pretty even teams.
WW-P got the upper hand in the District One tournament, winning two of the three times the teams met, including a 2-1 win in eight innings in the championship game. The two teams met again in the winner’s bracket final of the Southern New Jersey state tournament, with H-E leading 13-12 after five innings when the game was halted due to the lateness of the game. The teams were scheduled to resume that game on Thursday at WW-P’s Ciuffani Field.
“We’ve been very even and had all close games,” WW-P manager Brad Mitchell said. “At districts we won the winner’s bracket game and they came up through the losers’ bracket and beat us. Then we beat them in the second game that night. We’re very even with them. It is two evenly matched teams.”
WW-P was able to secure a District One title and is now hosting the state tournament as a district champion. The team is a nice mix of 14 and 15 year olds and had suffered just one loss heading into the conclusion of the game on Thursday.
“My team is kind of a new team,” Mitchell said. “Ewing-Hopewell and Nottingham have been the same as 13s, 14s and 15s. We have six 15-year-olds and seven 14s. I would have been the 14s manager but we combined the 14s and 15s and have this group.
“We’re doing well. The 15s are an important part of the team and our starting lineup is pretty much split.”
The WW-P roster includes West Windsor residents Kevin D’Cruz, Ben Goldstein, Chris Gonnella, Jack Lichtenstein, Cole Millinger, Jacob Mitchell, Arjun Peri, Neal Singal, Samrath Singh and Dylan Welch. The Plainsboro residents are Scott Doherty and Ted Yasson, while the Princeton resident on the team is Michael Ramirez. Mitchell’s assistant coaches are Steve Lichtenstein and Ed Doherty.
At the districts the team bounced back from a 3-1 loss to win the title behind the pitching of Ramirez, who went the first seven innings, and Goldstein, who pitched the eighth. Goldstein scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly by Singh.
“It was nice to earn our way into states,” Mitchell said. “It is nice to hang a banner. We haven’t done that since 2007. To get one is fun for the kids and great for the league. And on top of that you want to earn your way in and don’t want to say we’re just in the states because we are hosting. District One always puts some pretty good teams up there. I think it is the toughest district so if you win that it is saying something.”
Most of WW-P’s games have been tightly played, low-scoring contests. That made the game that started Tuesday night and was 13-12 after five innings quite unusual.
“Our strength has been defense and pitching,” Mitchell said. “We caught the ball great in districts. We turned a triple play and threw guys out at the plate. Throughout states we’d done the same thing. We tell our pitchers don’t walk guys, make then put it play. My pitchers are good and we do that and win low scoring games.
“(Tuesday) was the first time all summer we’ve reached double digit in runs and then the tables get flipped and we have our worst inning of the year and give up eight.”
WW-P trailed at different points in the game Tuesday but kept coming back, which is something Mitchell expected.
“They battle and they are a really good group,” Mitchell said. “They have known each other forever. Most of them are ninth graders that have been separated by the Babe Ruth age. They have known each other since they were little and played together in school forever.”
Ramirez is the lone Princeton representative on the team. Mitchell has been thrilled to have him and hopes more Princeton players become part of the program down the road.
“Princeton Little League really pushed the 50-70 and the 13s tend to stay an extra year there,” Mitchell said. “They have done really well there and it has been successful for them. I’ve told Mike’s dad we want to encourage the kids to stay with the game and stay local. So after Little League we want them to come over and play Babe Ruth. We think we can develop a good tradition. Nottingham has been the big boys but we have done very well and I think we can compete, especially if we draw from a little larger area. It makes the whole thing more competitive.”
The loser of Thursday’s completed game was scheduled to then face Mt. Laurel in the losers’ bracket final. The winner of that game would face the early Thursday winner in the finals tonight beginning at 6 p.m.
All of the games in the tournament have been played at Ciuffani Field in West Windsor Community Park.
“It has been great being able to host,” Mitchell said. “The parents have been great. You can’t run these tournaments without a lot of volunteer help and they have all been great.”
