By Ken Hesthag, Special Writer
The Hillsborough Heat 14U baseball team went 5-0 last weekend, July 25 and 26, to reach the championship game of the Mid-State Madness Baseball Tournament in Hershey, PA, before succumbing to the Holman Hurricanes Elite (Temple, Pa.), 9-1, and accepting the runner-up medal. The weekend tournament marked the last time this team will play together as the Hillsborough Heat, after six years and more than 400 competitive baseball games.
The weekend started with two pool games on Saturday morning. In Game 1, Erik Hesthag pitched a 7-inning complete game, as the Heat beat the Central Penn Renegades, 4-3.
With 3 regular catchers sidelined with injuries, and potentially 6 games to play over the weekend, Joey Talamo was asked to catch. With limited previous experience, he caught the entire game flawlessly. Talamo has been the Heat’s most versatile player throughout the 6-year run, putting in significant time at multiple positions, and playing each of the nine positions at one time or another.
On the offensive side, the Heat scored one run in the first inning as Michael Golankiewicz walked, stole second and third, and scored on a wild throw. Down, 2-1, in the top of the sixth, Vincent Gambardella walked, Brian Chung and Stephen Trampe each singled, scoring Gambardella. Talamo then drove in Chung with a sacrifice fly, and Trampe scored on a fielder’s choice, making it 4-2 Heat. The Renegades scored an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth, and Hesthag shut them down on no hits in the seventh for the 4-3 win.
In the second pool game, the Heat beat the Mid-Atlantic Bulldogs (Lindenwold, N.J.), 9-1, behind a 5-inning complete-game pitching performance by John Miliotis. After giving up one run in the first inning on 3 consecutive singles, Miliotis gave up just two singles the rest of the way. The Heat’s offense started hot, and got hotter throughout the game. Nick Scerbo led the game off with a single, and scored immediately on Michael Golankiewicz’s triple to the fence. After Brian Chung walked, and stole second, Golankiewicz sprinted home on the throw to second base.
In the third inning, they again scored two runs. Scerbo again led off with a single, and Gambardella drove him in with a double to the right centerfield fence. Gambardella then scored on Brian Chung’s RBI single.
The Heat ended the game with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Scerbo got on base for the third time leading off an inning, this time by a walk. Golankiewicz then walked, and Gambardella and Dan Salazar each hit RBI singles. After a force out, Trampe, Talamo and Matt Popadiuk hit consecutive singles. Popadiuk’s RBI single made it 8-1. Miliotis then worked out a bases loaded walk to drive in the game-ending run, and secure the 9-1 victory.
The two strong wins established the Heat as the number-two seed of 16 teams in the playoffs, set to begin on Sunday morning, with the potential for teams to play four games in one day if they reach the championship game.
Sunday’s play started with the Heat facing the Central Penn Renegades again, who happened to be the 15th seed. The Heat jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second, as Salazar singled, Trampe reached on an error and Talamo walked. Popadiuk, Miliotis, Hesthag and Scerbo then hit consecutive singles to push in four runs.
The Heat scored two more runs in the third, one in the fourth, and one in the fifth, to stretch the lead out to 8-1. Scerbo started the game on the mound, and pitched 4 strong innings. With a big lead, and an eye towards saving some innings for a later game, the versatile Talamo came in and pitched the fifth, sixth and seventh inning, giving up just one run, as the Heat won, 8-2, to move on to the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, the Heat faced the 10th-seeded Towamencin (Pa.) Titans in arguably the most exciting game of the day.
The Titans jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the top of the third inning, but in the bottom of the third, the Heat fought back to within one run, 6-5. Singles by Miliotis, Scerbo and Chung surrounded walks to Hesthag and Golankiewicz.
After Golankiewicz pitched and held the Titans scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings, the Heat tied the game at 6-6 with a run in the fifth. The Titans scored two runs in the top of the sixth to take an 8-6 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Popadiuk reached base in the critical sixth inning with a hard-earned walk. With one out, Hesthag and Scerbo also worked out a walk to load the bases, and Golankiewicz walked to drive in a run and make the score, 8-7, bringing Gambardella to the plate.
With the bases loaded, Gambardella ripped a fastball down the left field line for a clutch double, clearing the bases, and giving the Heat a 10-8 lead. Gambardella took third base on the throw home, and later scored himself on a ground ball by Salazar to make the score 11-8, and sending the Heat to the tournament semifinals.
In the semifinals, the Heat faced the third-seeded Akadema Warriors BBA (Middletown, Del.) After pitching Saturday, Miliotis came back to start this game and went three solid innings, giving up no runs on two hits.
In the meantime, the Heat continued its strong offense, scoring three runs in the second inning, and two in the third, for a 5-0 lead after three. They later added one run in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings also. Andrew Lagerman, who had been sidelined recently, and hadn’t played in the past two to three weeks, came in to pitch the final four innings. Lagerman held the Warriors to two runs over that span, with a gutty performance, securing an 8-2 win and sending the Heat to a championship game in their last tournament.
Scerbo, who pitched 4 innings in the first of the day’s four games, came back to start the championship game for the Heat and Salazar, Golankiewicz, and Chung all chipped in with some pitching. Chris Zickert, who has been sidelined in recent weeks, like Lagerman, also came in to pitch in the championship game, and did well considering the recent layoff.
In the 5th inning, Salazar singled and Chung walked. After Salazar was tagged out, Talamo singled to drive in Chung for the lone Heat run in the game. In the end, the regional “club” team from Temple, Pa., was too much for the “town” team from Hillsborough. However, you couldn’t tell from looking at the Heat players in the dugout. They were having fun, and enjoying this last game together as they all knew they had been part of something special both this weekend, and over the past six years.
Members of the Heat team will enter high school in September, and many may try out for the high school baseball team next spring. This Heat 14U team was a group of boys who enjoyed competitive baseball and came together as a team six seasons ago under the leadership of manager Brad Zickert, and coaches Paul Popadiuk, Tom Lagerman and Chris Golankiewicz. Steve Gambardella joined the coaching staff in the dugout for the current season. Off the field, Pete Scerbo has handled logistics, coordination of schedules and communications for the Heat family, throughout the six years.
This Heat’s record this season was 40-11-1. The team won 12 league or tournament championships over the past six years, were involved in many more hard-fought playoff games that they didn’t win. It won countless regular season games with great pitching and exciting comebacks.
Aside from all the wins and great baseball, and the off-the-field activities, such as volunteering at the township Parks & Recreation Department’s “Run Around the Park” 5K event this spring, the success of this six-year run became apparent in another way over the past two seasons. Many “town” teams that the Heat used to play, from neighboring towns such as Bridgewater, South Brunswick, and Montgomery, were no longer together, as players’ interests changed, or players left to join regional club teams.
The Hillsborough Heat 14U team never had tryouts or cuts based on performance, and never had any player leave for “a better baseball opportunity.” The current roster is made up of 12 boys from Hillsborough, nine of whom have been on the team since the first year as a 9U team in 2010. It has been a baseball family that has been proud to successfully represent Hillsborough over the past six years.
