DISTRICT ONE LL 12s TOURNAMENT
There is still more baseball
for RT-American All-Stars
-
ROCKAWAY TWP. - The Rockaway Township American 12-year-old All-Stars are moving on -- moving on to the Morris Plains Baseball Tournament for 12-year-old teams.
Manager Bob Tiefenbacher sees the tournament as a chance to play some more baseball as well as "... a chance to redeem ourselves" after finishing 1-4 in the pool play portion of the District One Little League Baseball Tournament.
"We were in a very talented Williamsport pool," Tiefenbacher said. "This team is much better than its 1-4 record shows ... hopefully, they will play with a chip on their shoulders and play up to their individual and group talents in the Morris Plains Tournament."
Rockaway Township American (RTA) lost its final District One game to Denville, 11-0, in a Pool B game played at Peterson Field here on Tuesday, July 6. Three Denville pitchers held RTA to one hit.
David Knightes' one-out single in the bottom of the fourth started RTA's only scoring threat of the game. Andrew Lisawa later walked with two outs and Vincent DeRose was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Denville got the next out to end the threat.
"Knightes hit the entire tournement and played when and where we needed him ... his attitude was great especially when it came to helping me get more playing time for some of the kids who were shorted in the first three games.
"All the players did a nice job of understanding that playing time was going to be hard to come by with 13 players on the team and with strict Williamsport subsitution rules.
"Once we knew we were not going to advance, we tried to even up some of the innings played and at-bats. The maturity of many of the kids was greatly appreciated."
Tiefenbacher will be looking for the combination of timely hitting, solid pitching and rally-killing defensive plays that led RTA to its only District One victory, a 5-1 decision over Morris Plains at Peterson Field on Friday, July 2.
RTA scored all five of its runs in the second inning and pitchers Kyle Gaeb and Joey Venturini made the lead stand up as they held Morris Plains to one run and four hits for the game.
Gaeb got the win, working the first 3.1 innings without allowing a run or a hit while striking out five and walking three. Gaeb got an out and issued his third walk in the top of the fourth when he was relieved by Venturini, who was greeted by a bad-hop, hard-single to right field on which Derek Todaro made a nice play in knocking down the ball to keep the Morris Plains runners from advancing - or possibly even scoring.
Venturini got the next two batters on strikeouts and went the rest of the way, throwing 2.2 innings while giving up one run (earned) on four hits while striking out five and walking two.
In the RTA second inning, singles by Michael Ross, Alec Tiefenbacher and Lishawa loaded the bases. Tyler Lisa followed with a single to right to drive in Ross, and Tiefenbacher came around to score when the Morris Plains outfielder bobbled the ball.
Todd Wilson grounded out second-to-first to bring in Lishawa, and Venturini followed with a single to center to drive in Lisa for the fourth run of the inning. Gaeb kept the rally going when he singled to center and Venturini was able to score from third on the play when the ball was misplayed in the outfield.
Morris Plains broke through in the fifth inning with a walk, double and RBI single accounting for its only run of the game.
In the Cards' fifth, Todd Wilson doubled off the wall in right-center but was stranded.
The visitors also threatened in the sixth and final inning when, with runners on first and second and two out, the runner from second tried to steal third but was thrown out on a nice throw and tag play from catcher Marc Santora to third baseman DeRose.
In earlier games:
Tri-Town 7, RTA 1 - Rockaway Township scored its run in the fifth inning when Lishawa drew a one-out walk, went to second on a wild pitch and scored when Tiefenbacher grounded out and there was a throwing error made trying to catch Lishawa off third base ... , Michael Murphy pitched 3.1 innings in relief , allowing two hits and one unearned run ... Wichman and Knightes had the only hits for Rockaway Township ...
Hanover 5, RTA 3 - Rockaway Township took a 2-0 lead in the second when Knightes, Gaeb and Derek Todaro singled to load the bases and Wilson followed with a two-run single to right-center ... after Hanover tied the score at 2-2 in the top of the third, Rockaway Township went back on top in its half of the inning when Venturini walks, steals second and is able to score when Knightes hits a ball that the Hanover second baseman can't handle ... Hanover pushes across three runs in the top of the fifth for the victory ...
Roxbury 21, RTA 2 - Knightes homered in the first inning and Wilson homered in the fourth for Rockaway Township's only runs of the game.
