Tyler Dunmeyer hit a towering home run against Nottingham in the District 12 tournament.  Photo by Michael A. Sabo

By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com

July 4:One of HTRBA’s concerns during the tournament season, is how to keep teams from pitching around Tyler Dunmeyer.

The Mercerville Maulers may have solved that issue on Tuesday.

HTRBA made sure an intentional walk to Dunmeyer proved to be fateful in taking an 11-6 win over Nottingham in a 12-year-old District 12 Little League Tournament game at Sayen Park’s Jim Reed Field.

Nottingham plays an elimination game at 8 p.m. Wednesday against West Windsor, while HTRBA meets Robbinsville in the winner’s bracket final at 8 p.m. Friday. Both games are at Sayen.

The Maulers were paced by Uriel Sanchez’s two home runs and four RBI.

“We’ve been working hard since mid-June, we haven’t had a day off,” HTRBA coach Tim O’Sullivan said. “We think we have a pretty strong lineup one through 11. And we work hard at fundamentals.

“Coming into the tournament, it was the defense I knew we needed to improve on. We did have a couple little blips today (three errors) but from the offensive standpoint I think we stack up pretty well.”

They sure have so far, scoring 30 runs in two games.

Dunmeyer got things started against the Square Boys in the first inning, when the lefty drove a ball that didn’t just go over the Texas Roadhouse Sign on the outfield fence, it may have gone over the actual Texas Roadhouse.

“There’s been some bombs before, Dunmeyer said. “But that’s one of the better ones. It feels great doing it here.”

Uriel Sanchez’s had two home runs and four RBI for HTRBA in their win over Nottingham. Photo by Michael A. SAbo

In the top of the second, Sanchez hit a line drive that cleared the centerfield fence by a foot, surprising even the batter.

“When it went out I was like ‘Whaaat?’” Uriel said.

Nottingham got one back in the second. In the third, with two outs and the bases empty, the Square Boys elected to intentionally walk Dunmeyer.

“Tyler’s a leader on this team, the guys look up to him,” O’Sullivan said. “Any chance Tyler has to swing a bat, we know anything can happen. The deeper we get, hopefully he’ll see some pitches.

“We need him. Every game it’s like ‘How do we protect him? Who’s behind him? Who’s going well?’ We need to have that right guy behind him every game just to make sure we can make it hurt.”

They certainly had him in this game. Cole Given followed the intentional walk with a free pass and Sanchez worked the count to 2-2 before clubbing one over the centerfield fence for a three-run homer that made it 5-1. Tyler Weniger then made it back-to-back with a solo shot.

“They were both fastballs on the middle-outer part of the plate,” Sanchez said of his homers. “I was thinking right center, center, and they went on their own.” 

O’Sullivan said there was a little change in the order to try and protect Dunmeyer. It didn’t work out exactly how it was planned. . . it worked out even better.

“We had Uriel Sanchez behind him in the four-hole last game,” the manager said. “Cole Given had a great game against Florence. We moved Cole up to the four, dropped Uriel down to five and Uriel took care of business hitting those two bombs.”

Dunmeyer finished 1-for-1 with three runs scored as he walked twice and was hit by a pitch.

Joe Lemly came in to finish the pitching duties against Nottingham. Photo by Michael A. Sabo

HTRBA tacked on two in the fourth and two more in the sixth to help withstand an onslaught by Nottingham’s Michael Stromberg, who hit a two-run homer and two-run double. Colin James had two hits for Nottingham, Matthew James had a double and run scored and Michael Smith had a single and walk.

Mekai Ortiz had two hits and two runs for HTRBA, Given had a hit, run and RBI, Weniger had two hits and a run and Tyler Milton had a single and run scored before leaving with a head issue after he collided with a teammate trying to make a catch in leftfield. Milton was taken to get checked out.

Dunmeyer got the mound win, allowing five hits while striking out nine in 4.1 innings.

“I just let them hit and trusted my defense behind me,” Dunmeyer said. “I just used my main key pitches that I’ve been working on my whole life, and just was attacking.”

HTRBA outfielders collide on a fly ball in the 6th inning. Photo by Michael A. Sabo

Both Sanchez and Dunmeyer are excited about the potential HTRBA has.

“Our team’s been great, the kids are great,” Dunmeyer said. “Our attitudes are that we’ve been playing and hustling and playing our game.”

“The team is great,” added Sanchez. “This is probably the best 12-year-old team we’ve had in a long time. We are really confident.”

If they keep protecting their slugger, that confidence will only grow.