New Jersey Section 1 Tournament Recaps

By Kyle Stackpole, contributing writer

Sunday marked the start of the Sectional Tournaments in New Jersey. University of Maryland-bound Kyle Stackpole went out to cover the Section 1 Tournament in Dumont today to see what New Jersey Little Leaguers had to offer. Here’s his first post as a contributing writer for Little League Insider.

Par Troy East 10, Somerset Hills 0 (F/5)

In the first game of the day, Par-Troy East was matched up against Somerset Hills. Par-Troy had Noah Lustig, their ace, on the mound while Somerset Hills went with Jeff Bailey.

The scoring started in the bottom of the second when Par-Troy’s  Alex Angulo and Angelo Cascio walked to start off the innin. Will Kauffman came in to try and stop the early bleeding for Somerset Hill but PTE kept the pressure up. Par-Troy scored its first two runs on a passed ball and a double steal attempt. Then, Andrew Stulec drove in the third run with an RBI-single. By the time the inning had ended, Par Troy East had a 4-0 lead.

Par-Troy added another in the fourth to make it 5-0, but the game was still well within reach. However, Somserset Hills could not get their bats going. They mustered only two hits against a combination of Noah Lustig (35 pitches), Ollie Boch (35 pitches), and Danny Rodriguez (13 pitches).

Par-Troy made a statement in the fifth inning that showed how explosive this team could be. After DePietrio and Stulec brought home two more runs on back-to-back hits, power-hitter Tyler Grieco came to the plate. Grieco was potentially fooled on the pitch, but, because of his strength, the ball carried all the way over the right field fence for a two-run home run, giving Par-Troy a 9-0 lead. Next to the plate was clean-up hitter Danny Rodriguez. He ended the game early by scolding a line-drive home run over the right center field fence. The 10-run mercy rule came into effect and the game was over.

With the win, Par-Troy will play Washington Township in the winners’ bracket on Monday at 6 p.m. Somerset Hills falls into the losers bracket and will play Monday at 8:15 p.m. against Lackawanna.

Wayne National 7, Lackawanna 2

With Lackawanna’s top two pitchers unavailable for the opening game of the Sectional, it was hard seeing them pulling this one out.

They began the game with Ryan Kaiser, who pitched a solid two innings. The only run he surrendered came on a double play ball that was overthrown.

Wayne National did most of its damage in the fourth inning with. After scoring their first run on a bases loaded walk, Jack Feit singled home two and Wayne National had a 4-0 lead. The game was broken open later in the inning with a huge three-run blast by Ari Field. The inning had finally ended, but not before Wayne National had a comfortable 7-0 cushion.

Lackawanna managed to put two across in the top of the fifth, but never seriously threatened to make it a game. Wayne National’s combination of Dominic Cancellieri and Jared Strus shut out Lackawanna while only giving up six hits, three of those coming from Chase Cramer.

The middle of Wayne National’s order definitely got the job done on Sunday. The 3-4-5 hitters (Jared Strus, Jack Feit, and Ari Field) were 3-for-4 with six runs batted in. Look for these hitters to carry Wayne National through the tournament.

With the win, Wayne National moves on to the winners’ bracket final. Lackawanna will play an elimination game against Somerset Hills tomorrow.

You can find Kyle Stackpole on Twitter: @LLWSallthetime

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