Hamilton Post 31 with their inaugural Hamilton Holiday Classic trophy

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

July 3: From the entire tournament itself to the outcome of the championship game, Hamilton Post 31 coaches and players could not have been happier with the result of the inaugural Hamilton Holiday Classic.

“I thought it was great,” said Post 31 manager Rick Freeman after Hamilton beat Washington Post 521, 7-5, at DeMeo Field Monday morning. “We played outside competition and all our local teams played outside competition. It was good to see other people. I think all those teams will be in the states and maybe we’ll see them again.”

The tournament was also a fundraiser, with all the money made from the 50-50s being donated to the Mercer County Sunshine Foundation.

“It’s a great cause, we’re happy to be a part of it,” Freeman said. “I think it went very well. Obviously there’s things we can do better and obviously there will be meetings over the winter to try and make it bigger and better. From what I’m told, what was raised for the Sunshine Foundation is a pretty sizeable amount.”

“It was pretty cool,” Sacco said. “The whole wooden bat thing. I thought that was cool. Obviously we played some good competition and played a great game.”

Winning pitcher Maguire Balke was in agreement.

“It was a nice experience for everybody,” Balke said. “We all did our jobs to win. It was great.”

Post 31 opened the tournament by beating Hillsborough, then lost to Washington before defeating Haddon Heights. It won the rematch despite being outhit, 10-5, as Joey Sacco and Ryan Mostrangeli delivered big blows in a sixth-inning four-run rally.

“Washington shut us down (4-0) the first time,” Sacco said. “They had a little lefty who really shut us down. This was a little bit of a revenge game. We obviously knew coming into this game that they beat us in the past and we gotta come out and play baseball.”

Hamilton entered the top of the fourth without a hit. Jake Beyer walked and Matt Ricci hit an RBI double to make it 3-1. Ricci took third and Alex Coleman walked to put runners at the corners, but a pop-out and double play prevented further scoring.

In the top of the fifth, Brady Plunkett blooped a leadoff single down the leftfield line, went to second on Sacco’s sacrifice, took third on C.J. Pittaro’s ground out and scored on Mostrangeli’s single.

The sixth-inning rally came with two outs and nobody on after a Post 31 runner got picked off. Then came three straight walks and pinch-runner Brendan James scored on a wild pitch to tie it. With runners on second and third, Sacco lined a 2-2 pitch into centerfield for a go-ahead two-run single.  

“He got ahead of me early, he beat me with two fastballs” Sacco said. “I just had to shorten up, try to use the middle of the field. I got a good piece of one.”

Sacco went all the way to third on an errant pickoff and CJ Pittaro walked. Mostrangeli then blasted a two-run double to deep center for what would prove to be necessary insurance after Washington got two back in the seventh.

“We didn’t give up, which is important to see with this team heading into tournament time,” Sacco said. “We played well, one through however many kids there are on the team. This is definitely a team win.”

Casey Navarro finished up four Balke who threw four shutout innings after being touched for three runs in the first.

“The first inning I felt a little sluggish,” Balke said. “I wasn’t throwing the way I wanted to and they were just hitting off me. But the next couple innings I started to get progressively better until I started pitching like I usually do.”

“Maguire absolutely battled,” Sacco said. “Mr. Freeman tells us a story about Roy Halliday and how he got pounded early and their bullpen needed a rest and he battled through seven innings, and that’s what Maguire did today. He gave us a great outing.”

So, Maguire is Roy Halliday?

“He’s the next best thing I guess, right?” Sacco said with a laugh. “He got the job done today.”

“He battles,” Freeman said. “He believes in himself and when you’re able to do that you can give length.”

And give your team a historic first in in a first-time tournament.