David Zamora led the attack for Hamilton-NB against the Southeast, going 3-for-3 with a home run, three runs, and three RBI. In this picture, Zamora watches his home run clear the outfield fence. Photo by Jim Rossi.
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Aug. 14: Now it’s getting serious.
The Hamilton-Northern Burlington Babe Ruth 14-year-olds finished World Series pool play at 3-1 with a resounding 12-2 victory over the Southeast Region in Glen Allen, Va., Monday morning.
In finishing second in the National Division, H-NB advances to the elimination round and will play the third-place team from the American Division at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The opponent will not be decided until day’s end on Monday. Tuesday’s winner takes on the American Division winner Wednesday.
“There are six teams left and I think it’s anybody’s ball game,” manager Jim “Uuummmm” Petersohn said. “If we play our ball game we’ll be there Thursday night, but we have to take care of business tomorrow and Wednesday first.”
Petersohn said he would have liked to have gotten the bye awarded to the two pool winners, but realizes his team has the pitching depth to survive an extra game.
“Our goal was to win the one-seed,” he said. “Obviously that didn’t happen. It’s not a bad thing to play tomorrow, we’re still pretty stacked with our pitching. Our pitching’s pretty lined up and we have a lot of fresh arms.”
Mike Giambelluca drives in the go ahead run for Hamilton-NB against Southeast Region all stars. Photo by Jim Rossi.
“It’s always good to have a day off,” added Mike Giambelluca, who had the go-ahead hit. “But I think we should play, just so we’re always on.”
Jake Babuschak will start on Tuesday, with David Zamora slated for Wednesday and Nick Nemes on Thursday if H-NB continues to win.
Zamora led the attack against the Southeast, going 3-for-3 with a home run, three runs and three RBI, while Anthony Wilk had three hits and scored twice. Zac Brown had a hit and three RBI and Gavin Martin had two hits and two runs.
“We’re always picking each other up,” Giambelluca said of the balanced offensive onslaught.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on consecutive doubles by Martin and Zamora, H-NB allowed two in the bottom of the inning. But the Switlik Swatters took the lead for good in the third by scoring three runs after there were two outs.
Martin started the rally with a single and Zamora walked. Both moved up on a wild pitch and Giambelluca made it hurt by grounding a two-run single to left. Tommy Niedermaier then bounced one to first that was booted, allowing Giambelluca to score and make it 4-2.
Giambelluca said he got a fastball to hit on a 1-2 count.
“I knew I had to get those runs in, so I was just trying to put the ball in play, find a hole, get the kids in,” Giambelluca said.
“Michael is the silent leader on this team,” Petersohn said. “Those kids, when he speaks, they listen, and he’s really fit in very nicely in the clean-up hole for us. He’s just a very fundamental baseball player and we’re very fortunate to have him.”
The Uuummmms tacked on two more in the fifth when Danilo Perdomo walked and Zamora homered to make it 6-2. Continuing to build on its lead, H-NB loaded the bases in the sixth on singles by Wilk and Babuschak and a walk to Nate Rodriguez. Wilk eventually scored on a passed ball.
Leaving nothing to chance, the Swatters continued to attack in the seventh and completely blew it open with a five-run inning.
Zamora singled and Gibbs and Tyler Solymosi walked before Tommy Cramer hit a sacrifice fly. Wilk’s ground ball resulted in a run-scoring error and Brown followed with a two-run double that resulted in three runs when Babuschak scored on the throw.
“Once you’re ahead you gotta stay ahead,” Giambelluca said of the tack-on runs. “Hopefully that will transition into tomorrow.”
Wilk overcame a shaky mound start, in which he allowed four hits in the first, to go five innings and get the win. The hurler scattered eight hits and two walks while striking out one.
Anthony Wilk went five innings and get the win for Hamilton NB.
“Anthony’s been in the regular rotation for us but hasn’t pitched with any depth for a while,” Petersohn said. “So, maybe a little bit of nerves. But we had confidence in him. It was only 2-1 after the first inning and we were really hitting their kid around.
“And Anthony absolutely sharpened up; it was a very gutty performance. We basically told him, pitch to contact and your defense will do the work for you. That’s the one thing we’ve had consistently, solid defense.”
John Gibbs finished up, allowing two hits, one walk and two runs (both unearned) while striking out one in two innings.
And now it’s down to win-or-go-home, and the Swatters are hoping they don’t go home until after a win on Thursday.
“I think they realize it’s three more games and this season’s over, and the end is getting that much closer,” Petersohn said. “There’s not a team down here that wows anybody. We can play with anybody. We have to minimize our mistakes and play a very crisp game, which we’re very capable of.”
Giambelluca said H-NB is feeling no pressure.
“We’re just having fun right now,” he said. “That’s what we came here to do; have fun and win.”
So far, so good.
