By Rich Fisher, Packet Media Group
The Ewing-Hopewell Babe Ruth 14-year-old All Stars had a great run end on a high note in one sense, but a low note on the other.
On Sunday, E-H won its final game of pool play in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament with a 10-4 win over Piedmont, NY. Unfortunately for the locals, their 2-2 record was tied for second place with Nottingham and Sorensco, N.Y. (Valley finished 4-0), and they lost out on the tie-breakers.
The first tie-breakers was total runs allowed. Nottingham allowed 16, while E-H and Sorensco were tied with 26 each. Thus, Sorensco advanced to bracket play by virtue of its 5-4 win over Ewing-Hopewell.
So, while the win was a high, not being able to advance was a low.
But it can’t detract from a heck of a run by John Scaccetti’s club, which finished second in the Southern New Jersey state tournament and third in the District One tournament.
Ewing-Hopewell opened Mid-Atlantic play on July 28 by taking a 6-5 win over host Nottingham at Hamilton’s Veterans Park. E-H rolled to a 6-1 lead than had to hang on as Nottingham mounted a furious comeback.
Leadoff batter Luke Blair sparked the offense, going 2-for-2 with two RBI and two runs scored. Drew Brodine had a hit and two RBI for E-H, which won despite getting just four hits. Brendan Jackson put forth an outstanding relief effort, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out one in 2.2 scoreless innings.
After Nottingham scored in the top of the first, E-H took the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Blair singled, Robert Rose drew a two-out walk and both runners scored when Kyle Randazzo reached on an error.
E-H looked ready to make it a blowout by scoring four runs in the second. Dakota Ditmars and Matthew Nyce drew leadoff walks and Dylan Joyce was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases. Blair followed with a two-run single, and Marc Porpora and Brodine added singles to make it 6-2.
Nottingham came back with two in the third, one in the fourth and one in the fifth before Jackson came on to shut the door.
It was a tough game two for E-H, which suffered a 12-2 setback to Valley. Ditmars had two hits and a run scored and Nyce had two hits and an RBI for Ewing-Hopewell.
That was followed by heart-breaking 5-4 loss to Sorensco, which proved to be the difference between E-H having its season ended or moving on to bracket play.
Ewing-Hopewell staged a two-run rally in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 4-4 before the Eastern New York champion pushed across a walk-off run in the bottom of the inning.
Porpora had a hit and RBI, while Blair, Randazzo and Ryan Coughlin each had a hit and run scored. Rose allowed six hits and two earned runs over six innings and struck out four.
E-H took a 1-0 lead in the first when Blair doubled and scored on a wild pitch. Sorensco scored two in the bottom of the second and the score stayed 2-1 into the top of the sixth.
Ewing-Hopewell tied it in the sixth when Randazzo and Brodine singled and Randazzo eventually scored on a steal of home. Sorensco again answered, coming back with two in the bottom of the sixth.
The gutsy locals went back to work in the seventh when Anthony Yarson and Coughlin walked and moved up on a sacrifice by Brendan Jackson. Blair was walked intentionally, and Porpora walked to force in a run. Randazzo reached on a two-out error as Coughlin scored the tying run.
Sorensco scored the winning run on a two-out error in the bottom of the seventh.
Knowing it had to win game 4 to stay in contention for bracket play, Ewing-Hopewell stormed to leads of 3-0 and 7-1 and never looked back in a 10-4 win over Piedmont.
Rose went 3-for-3 with two runs scored, Brodine had two hits, two RBI and a run, Ditmars had a hit, two RBI and two runs, Blair had two hits and two runs and Yarson had a hit, two RBI and run scored. Nyce fired a complete game, allowing five hits, three walks and two earned runs while striking out eight.
Blair scored on a passed ball in the first to give E-H the lead, while Yarson’s RBI single and Tyrique Alston’s RBI ground-out made it 3-0 in the second. After Piedmont got one back, E-H answered with four in the third to take control for good.
