Beczo’s hit and the arms of Welke, Wilk and James give Post 31 grind-it-out win

Ryan Beczo Post 31
Ryan “Mini Dweller” Beczo, shown here playing for Hamilton West during the high school season, had the game winning hit for Post 31 against Lawrence Monday night (Photo by Mike Sabo)

 

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

June 18: Rick Freeman made this assessment of Ryan “The Mini-Dweller” Beczo coming to Hamilton Post 31 from Broad Street Park this summer — “Ryan’s great; fits right in. He’s a little off center, so he fits in perfectly.”

That was a good way of describing Beczos’ big hit tonight, as he flared a 2-2 pitch into right-center – or a little off center, so to speak – to score Tyler Nielsen with the game-winning run in a 2-1 victory over Lawrence at Rich Giallella Field.

Hamilton had taken a 1-0 lead in the third when Michael James walked, stole second and took third on an over-throw, and scored on Joey Sacco’s double. Lawrence tied it in the fourth, setting up Beczo to be the hero in the sixth.

Brendan James started the rally with a one-out walk and Nielsen pinch-ran. He took second on Drayven Kowalski’s ground out, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on Beczo’s hit.

Said the Dweller, “I honestly felt (Jake) Kmiec, because he’s such a fast outfielder, was gonna run in and catch it, but. . .”

But he couldn’t stop Beczo from getting another important hit.

“He’s been doing that quite a bit, actually,” Freeman said.

The game was about so much more than big hits, however.

Start with Hamilton’s pitching. Starter Josh Welke walked on the edge all night as he allowed the leadoff runner to reach base in all five innings he pitched. But it only cost him one time and that ended up being an unearned run.

After Welke started the fifth with a walk, Anthony Wilk entered and was nothing short of fantastic. He faced eight batters and got nine outs, with no one reaching base. The ninth out was on an outstanding play by Michael James on a potential sacrifice fly in the fifth. James made the catch and gunned an uber-accurate one-hopper to Kowalski to nail Ryan Mains at home.

Asked if he had confidence in his arm, James said, “I do, but it did come along slow. I started off a little weak at the beginning of the season, but it’s getting stronger and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“Mike’s just getting better every day,” Freeman said. “He works hard, he’s coachable and he’s got some ability that’s starting to come forward.”

Wilk then pitched a clean sixth and seventh to conclude a strong mound performance by Post 31.

“Welke’s actually sick right now, so that’s ridiculous what he did,” Beczo said. “He came out and pitched four good innings. Wilk came in, as a sophomore, and did an amazing job.”

“They threw strikes and pitched to contact,” James added. “That’s all we really need.”

The game ended on Sacco making an outstanding diving catch on a ball in foul territory in shallow left field.

“That was a nice play,” James said. “That was a tough angle.

And it concluded a tough win.

“Our kids battled and the way they came out, we had to weather the storm and we did,” Freeman said. “We kind of got our feet under us and started to play. That’s what we’ve done lately.”

And their newcomer from their arch rival has helped make a difference.

“I’m having a lot of fun here,” Beczo said. “In my opinion I made the right choice. I knew most of these guys. It was kind of tough walking into tryouts the first day. I showed up with my West gear on, everybody was kind of looking at me like ‘What is he doing here?’ But they all welcomed me.”

Keep getting game-winning hits, and that welcome won’t wear out.

About The Author


Rich Fisher has been around the Hamilton Township sports scene for so long that he actually got Rich Giallella’s autograph when Giallella was still a player! Proud product of Hamilton YMCA and Lou Gehrig baseball leagues and former teammate of Jim Maher on a very average Barton & Cooney rec basketball team, Fish graduated from Nottingham Junior High and Steinert High school and has covered township sports since 1980. His goal in life is to convince Maria Prato that Jersey tomatoes are at least 100 times better than California tomatoes.