Hamilton-Northern Burlington Babe Ruth pitcher Justin Wiltsey delivers to the plate against Nottingham Babe Ruth. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
July 20: Like any legendary baseball mind, Joe “The Dweller” Beczo went home on Wednesday and had a sleepless night.
“I questioned all my moves yesterday,” he said, referring to his Hamilton-Northern Burlington Babe Ruth 15-year-olds 3-1 loss to West Windsor.
It probably didn’t take too long as he didn’t really make many moves. But showing what a difference a night can make, his moves and non-moves both paid off Thursday as H-NB took a 9-2 win over Nottingham in a Southern New Jersey State Tournament elimination game at DeMeo Field.
That puts the Dwellers in the finals, where they must beat West Windsor-Plainsboro twice to win the title. The first game starts at 6 p.m. and the “if” game is immediately following.
Hamilton bounced back from its listless loss to WWP and also from a 2-0 deficit to Nottingham, who scored two in the top of the first when Jack Hardiman singled and scored on a balk and Tyler Nielsen and Thomas Gater hit consecutive doubles.
In the second, Ryan “The Mini-Dweller” Beczo and Robbie Bennett hit leadoff singles and winning pitcher Justin Wiltsey successfully sacrificed. Pat Luckie escaped unscathed, however.
In the third, Nick and Jordan Diaz hit leadoff singles and Zach Posivak bunted them over. This time it made a difference. After a short fly out, Travis Holonics walked and Nick Diaz scored on a wild pitch. Beczo hit an RBI single and Wiltsey drew a bases-loaded walk to give Hamilton a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish.
Hamilton got the first two runners on for the third straight time in the fourth when Joshua Eib reached on an error and Nick Diaz walked. With all the second-guessers behind home plate wondering why Jordan Diaz was not bunting (including Fish4scores), Diaz ripped an 0-2 pitch for an RBI double down the leftfield line.
Take that, second guessers!
“I brought him over and said ‘You’re gonna bunt this one down the third base line,’” Joe Beczo said. “Then I said, ‘Nah just go up there and hit the ball.’ You never know. With baseball, no one knows.”
H-NB added two more on Posivak’s RBI groundout and Giovanni Mannino’s RBI single. With Wiltsey solving first-inning issues with his slider, Hamilton would never be threatened. The right-hander scattered eight hits, did not allow a walk and struck out three.
“I started to let my slider go a little earlier (after the first) and that’s when it started dropping in for strikes,” Wiltsey said. “I mixed it up a lot, threw my change-up, slider, two-seam, fastball high.
“Once we got the lead it gave me a lot of confidence that my team could back me up. They were fired up. We could hit more, get more runs and I had a lot of insurance.”
In asking what sparked the comeback, Ryan Beczo said, “It was hits and walks and in the dugout we gained some energy. We all started cheering for each other. And that’s what we didn’t have last night. We went down by two and everyone just collapsed.”
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”8″ gal_title=”Hamilton vs Nottingham 15 year old Babe Ruth”]
Jason Diaz had two hits, two runs and an RBI, Holonics had a hit and two runs, Wiltsey had three walks, a run and an RBI, Eib had an RBI and run scored, Bennett had a hit and RBI and Nick Diaz scored twice. But it was Beczo who had the career-night, going 3-for-4 with two RBI.
“That was Ryan’s first three-hit game,” his dad said. “He and Wiltsey are big for us. They get everybody pumped up.”
It makes sense, as each has played for two years on Hamilton West’s varsity.
“There’s some other kids on the bench that have played varsity, but being we’ve been there two years straight they kind of look at us as veterans,” Beczo said. “I don’t mind it. I get on people when they do something wrong but I expect them to get on me too, because I’m not the only leader on the team.”
The Dwellers were in desperate need of a leader on Wednesday. Joe Beczo sensed they were flat from the get-go, and nothing changed in the WW-P loss.
“When you lose things start to escalate and it’s this or that,” the manager said. “I said nothing at all to them today. Just ‘Go out and play baseball like you’re capable of.’ Justin came through after that first inning, Ryan had three hits, two RBIs and we made the plays.”
“We actually had a group chat on our phones and we were all saying stuff,” Ryan Beczo said. “We absolutely had to come out and our IO had to be 10 times better than yesterday and it was. I thought we were gonna get down after they got that two-run lead because yesterday we just quit and that was it.”
But there’s something about this team when its back is against the wall. Last year, it immediately fell into the elimination bracket and won six straight for a state title.
This year, the Dwellers need two more against the only team that has beaten them.
“We’re gonna come out like tonight,” Wiltsey said. “We need to hit. Our pitching is fine, we need to back up whoever’s pitching.”
That will be Nick Diaz in the first game and either Beczo or Mannino if Hamilton forces a second.
“Last night was tough,” Joe Beczo said. “But after last year I don’t think anything will faze them. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. We’ll come, we’ll play the first one, if we win, we’ll play the second one.”
There you have it. A legendary baseball mind breaking things down to their simplest form.
