HTRBA one win away from District 12 title

Patrick Paterson
HTRBA batter Patrick Paterson locks in and drives home run deep to right-center field against Robbinsville.  Photo by Michael A. Sabo

Grinds out a huge District 12 win over Robbinsville

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

July 7: In its first two District 12 games, HTRBA won with its bats.

On Friday night, the Mercerville Maulers won with their toughness.

After scoring 30 runs in two wins, HTRBA mustered only three hits at Sayen Park tonight but that was enough to pull out a 3-1 victory over Robbinsville in a D-12 winner’s bracket final.

The win puts the Maulers just one win away from their first district title since 2004, when they also won the state crown. It also gives them a day off while Robbinsville and West Windsor battle it out in the loser’s bracket final Saturday morning at Sayen. The survivor must then beat HTRBA in Sunday’s noon game at Sayen and then come back and win on Monday night.

Needless to say, HTRBA is in a good spot, but the players are taking nothing for granted.

Patrick Patterson HTRBA

HTRBA greets Patrick Patterson after his third inning home run jump started the team against Robbinsville. Photo by Michael A. Sabo

“I think we’re going to just keep focusing and keep playing as a team,” said Patrick Paterson, whose third-inning home run lit a fire under HTRBA. “We’re just going to keep working.”

The MMs certainly worked hard in this one. They were out-hit 7-3 as Robbinsville had baserunners on in every inning. But Uriel Sanchez was uber-tough when it counted as he left 10 RLL baserunners stranded through his five innings.

Robbinsville left two men on in the first, fourth and fifth, a runner on third in the second, the bases loaded in the third and a runner on first in the sixth. Robbinsville twice put runners on third with less than one out without scoring.

To put it bluntly, Sanchez gutted it out.

“He certainly did,” manager Tim O’Sullivan said. “When he needed to make the big pitch he did. He really came to pitch tonight.”

Uriel Sanchez

HTRBA Pitcher Uriel Sanchez delivers to the plate against Robbinsville. Photo by Michael A. Sabo

Sanchez got a major defensive contribution from leftfielder Mekai Ortiz to open the bottom of the fifth. Anthony Ziliani smoked one off the fence that Ortiz got to in a hurry. Without wasting a step he grabbed the ball and gunned a strike to second to nail Ziliani trying to get what looked like it would be an easy double.

“Mekai probably has one of the best arms on the team and that was huge,” O’Sullivan said. “We try to practice that as much as we can and we tell him, as soon as it gets past you to the wall you gotta throw straight to the base. He did just that, he threw a bullet to second base.”

Asked if he takes pride in having a good arm, the modest Ortiz did not echo his manager’s thoughts.

“No, not really,” he said with a shrug. “I just tried to pick it up and just throw it to second. I didn’t know he was going until I heard people yelling. So I just picked it up and threw it in there.”

HTRBA vs Robbinsville

HTRBA 3rd basemen makes a long throw to get the runner on a ground ball in the 4th inning. Photo by Michael A. Sabo

The play took on an added dimension when an error put two Robbinsville runners on with two outs instead of loading the bases with one out. That made it a little less tense for Sanchez, who got a strikeout to end it.

The offense, while limited, did enough to make the pitching and defense count.

After tough-luck loser Conor Stachowski struck out the side in the first and set HTRBA down in order in the second, it looked like it could be a long night for the township boys. But Patrick Paterson led off the third with a home run over the centerfield wall to make it 1-0.

“I like hitting that way toward center,” said Paterson, who hit two this year. “Everybody kind of got lifted up after that.”

When asked if it got his team going, O’Sullivan said, “We’ve been trying to get Patrick going as well.”

“I think we had him in the right place today and he stayed back and waited,” the skipper said. “He got an off-speed pitch and knew what to do with it when he got it.”

HTRBA’s other runs came in the fourth when Tyler Dunmeyer walked, Cole Given was hit by a pitch and Sanchez’s grounder was thrown away to allow two runs to score. Robbinsville got one back

HTRBA closer Nick Csilan was near picture perfect in the sixth against Robbinsville. Photo by Michael A Sabo.

with a Noah Young homer in the fourth but HTRBA got one more tough inning from Sanchez and a strong sixth from Nick Csillan to end it.

And on Sunday, with Dunmeyer taking the mound, the MMs look to end something else – a  13-year district drought.

 

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.