Hamilton-Northern Burlington 14 Year Old Babe Ruth All Star Zac Brown had a hit and RBI against Severn, Md. in the Babe Ruth Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament. File Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
July 26:Manager Jim “Uuummmm” Petersohn wants to give everybody on his team a chance.
That includes his coaches, as he put coach Mike “The New Father” Moceri in charge of Wednesday’s post-game interview.
And, after the Hamilton-Northern Burlington 14s took a 7-1 win over Severn, Md. to move to 2-0 in Pool A of the Babe Ruth Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament at Switlik Park, Moceri put the lethargic victory into perfect context.
“We came out a little flat, but it’s all about getting the win,” TNF said. “We did that. We got some of our guys work that needed to get work on the mound. We got some of our guys at-bats that needed to get at-bats and we just wanted to get out of there with a win.”
H-NB continued to empty its bench, as every player has gotten into every game since districts started. During the game, Moceri reminded some players they need to play sharp no matter who the competition is.
“We’ve got 15 quality guys,” he said. “If you’re not gonna get better every day than you’re not gonna be in there, it’s as simple as that.”
That being said, Moceri understood how the team could be a little less than enthusiastic in playing a squad that lost its opener 14-0. To its credit, however, Severn hung around after some early-inning errors gave H-NB a 4-0 lead. Hamilton couldn’t mount much more of an attack, finishing with seven hits as the Marylanders refused to roll over.
“We kind of knew they weren’t the best team and we had a really good chance of winning,” said outfielder Zac Brown, a rising sophomore at Hamilton West who had a hit and RBI. “It was like, one of those games. It was like a trap game.”
It’s also a little tough to get up for pool play when all eight teams advance to bracket play, which starts with four quarterfinals on Friday. But Brown said Hamilton-NB has a goal.
“We want to be the number one seed and not lose a game,” he said. “We lost two games in the Toms River Tournament. We know what it feels like and we didn’t really like it.”
Brown was one of three players with sacrifice flies, along with Tommy Cramer and Nate Rodriguez. David Zamora had an RBI double and two runs scored, while Gavin Martin had a hit and scored twice, and John Gibbs and Anthony Wilk each had a hit and run scored.
Tyler Solymosi pitched the first three innings, allowing two hits and two walks, while Carson Wehner allowed one run and three hits over the final four innings, as H-NB’s scoreless inning streak ended at 25.
“We wanted to run both of them out there for 45 pitches, no matter how many innings it was,” said Moceri, noting H-NB wants to keep as many pitchers eligible to pitch as possible. “If Tyler had thrown 45 in five that’s how long he would have stayed in.”
And with that, Moceri completed his excellent press conference.
Bring on Gatto!
