Jake Pope pretty much symbolized the tenacity and resiliency of the Nottingham Little League 10-year-old All-Star team.
With Nottingham needing just a few outs to win the District 12 championship, Pope had a groundball go through his legs at shortstop to allow West Windsor to take a come-from-behind, 6-5 win and force the “if” game. Rain postponed the game that was scheduled for July 13, forcing Pope to think about his error an extra day.
Except he didn’t think about it.
“I really wanted to get back on the field and redeem myself,” he said. “I was really aggravated, but I said to myself, ‘We have a game tomorrow, that’s what we get for being in the winner’s bracket, so I’ll get them the next day.’ I didn’t worry about it. I just rested.”
And rather than lose confidence in himself, Pope came back in the Thursday night final and used the same glove that betrayed him to make a difference as the Sayen Gang rallied for a 5-4 win to claim the District 12 title.
“Jake Pope’s defense at shortstop was incredible,” manager Adam Bendas said. “It kept us in the game. Our defense carried us in the championship game, and Jake was a big reason.”
They continued with that momentum into the Section 3 tournament, which Nottingham won July 22 by defeating Holbrook, 12-6, in the championship game.
Pope knew he had a chance to atone for his mistake in the district tournament, which is all he focused on.
“When I was going out on the field, I was just thinking to myself, ‘That play happened last game, and I just want to do better this game,’” he said. “Like all the coaches and everybody says; defense wins games. I just go with that.”
He went with it in a big way. And because Pope and relief pitcher Ryan White kept their team in the game, it allowed Nottingham to rise from the ashes just as their shortstop did.
Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Nottingham plated three runs to win it and advance to the Section 3 Tournament, where it won its first two games over Middletown (7-0) and Holbrook (10-0).
And what words of wisdom did Bendas use to inspire his troops rally? Turned out it was the sound of silence.
“I actually said nothing to them,” he said. “Our players, on their own, huddled up in the dugout. They were talking to each other and getting each other pumped up. They did it on their own, they came off field, huddled in the circle and pumped each other up. I can’t say I said anything to them. But I had all the confidence in the world in these kids. They’d been in this situation before, of having to come back.”
They had not yet encountered a last-inning deficit in the districts this year, however. Their big comeback win came after falling behind 5-0 to Lawrence. But they rallied for the lead well before the sixth in that game.
After firing each other up, Nottingham went to work. Joey Bendas drew a leadoff walk and was pinch-run for by Joey Rafferty. Dan Graziano Jr. and Genaro Salzano followed with a single to load the bases with no outs.
Alex Wolak then singled to left field to score what looked like it would be two runs. But the leftfielder threw home to try and cut down the tying run. When that throw was too late, the catcher threw errantly trying to nab Salzano at third, and the runner romped home with the championship run.
“It happened so quick I was just like, ‘What the heck just happened?” Adam Bendas said. “We had them on the ropes and things worked our way.”
The rally made a winning pitcher of White, who threw four scoreless innings of relief to keep the game within striking distance. Trailing 4-1, Nottingham got one in the fifth before its winning explosion.
“I was really nervous (in the sixth) and as soon as that first baserunner got on base I just felt so good and felt confident in my team that we had the chance,” White said. “I was pumped up and knew we could do something good. I was going crazy when he got the hit. I couldn’t believe that just happened on that little base hit. It was awesome.”
“Going into that inning we were really scared,” Pope said. “But when we got bases loaded, we got more confident and it felt really good when we won.”
Graziano, whose father played second base for the 1987 NLL state champs, had the key at-bat in the rally when he worked from an 0-2 hole to a full count before singling.
“That was just a great at-bat,” Bendas said. “It really was a team effort, with everybody contributing.”
The skipper praised White for coming in and being “lights out. He kept us in the game.”
“I felt good coming in to pitch,” White said. “I felt confident and my defense had my back and we did awesome.”
Bendas praised Graziano, Deacon Bowne, White and Dominic Vizzoni as being the team’s main hurlers, while crediting the entire team for offensive contributions. Rounding out the roster are Christian Finacchio, Christian Snedeker, Andrew Wolak and Joe Petrullo. As a team, Nottingham hit .470 in the districts with a .520 on-base percentage and .561 slugging percentage.
The Sayen Gang looked unstoppable in its first three games, defeating Robbinsville, Sunnybrae and Lawrence by a combined score of 38-8. But West Windsor showed some guts after winning five straight to force a winner-take-all final.
After the tough loss to West Windsor, Bendas delivered low-key speech.
“I told them we were in a great position because we had one more game to play and we weren’t out of the tournament,” he said. “I told them that tomorrow’s another day, we start fresh and we go from there. We weren’t out of it and we were by no means done.
“The kids were all in, we were ready to go the next day. Unfortunately, we got rained out and had a whole extra day of anticipation. In some respects, I think the day off was a good thing for us because it gave us another pitcher we wouldn’t have had. But we just wanted to get out there and play.”
“It was tough waiting, and West Windsor is a really good team,” White said. “I just tried to relax (on the off day) and was just thinking about the game and how it would go.”
It went just the way Nottingham hoped it would, thanks to a group of resilient players.
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