Front Row: Max Brass, Jake Tobia, Kenny Sullivan, Sam Margulis, Adam Wijaya and Andy Blake. Back Row: Coach Chris Tobia, Nick Psomaras, Michael Savas, Jack Kandell, Manager Al Kandell, Sid Spencer, Jake Storer, Dom Gambino and Coach John Savas.
No one involved with Babe Ruth baseball likes the fact that leagues have to merge in order to survive, due mostly to parents willing to spend a lot of money for travel baseball. But if other leagues are considering a merger, Ewing-Hopewell is putting together a pretty good blueprint for others to follow.
This summer, the E-H 14-year-old All Stars won the District One championship, finished second to Atlantic Shore in the Southern New Jersey State Tournament and went 2-2 in pool play in the Mid-Atlantic Regional, missing out on bracket play due to tie-breakers.
The 15s were even more impressive. Despite playing without long-time manager Joe Gambino, who was sidelined with health issues, the squad was one game away from a trip to the Babe Ruth World Series. E-H was second in District One, won the SNJ state title and went 3-1 in pool play in the regional before winning the quarterfinals and semifinals of bracket play. Ewing-Hopewell eventually lost in the championship game, losing to West End (Pa.), 7-3, on a walk-off grand slam in extra innings.
“The merger has allowed two small leagues to come together and put out a pretty formidable league,” 14s manager John Scaccetti said. “We both lost players to travel programs. Hopefully with this strong showing we can keep kids in the league and get some back.”
Al Kandell, is the 15s manager and has been with the team from the start, along with coach Chris Tobia. He echoed Scaccetti’s sentiments about the perks the merger provided, noting that a solid group of nine Hopewell Township players were strengthened by the addition of four from Ewing (plus two from Lambertville). The use of Ewing’s indoor batting cages also helped.
Kandell then spoke of the built-in advantages provided when guys pursue success with their lifelong buddies.
“I hope what we’ve done as a league revitalizes Babe Ruth,” Kandell said. “A lot of kids are losing out on the enjoyment of playing with hometown boys, of kids they go to school with, kids in the neighborhood. We’re losing that hometown spirit. The experience we just had, I hope would spread to these other guys who are going to big travel leagues. And hopefully they see they can get pretty good coaching here.”
Kandell’s squad enjoyed a wild ride to the regional final. They were outlasted by West Windsor-Plainsboro after playing some marathon district games, but came back to avenge those losses with a 3-1 win in the SNJ state final. E-H managed the title without the injured Sam Margulis, a varsity performer for Hopewell Valley Central High School last spring. He returned for regionals.
“Winning states meant so much,” said Dom Gambino, one of several aces for Ewing-Hopewell. “Ever since I was eight years old, I’ve been dreaming of how great it would be to win the state title. ”
Kandell said it was the perfect antidote to losing districts.
“The bats weren’t coming alive like I thought [in districts],” he said. “But it was huge to win states. We never won the states with that age group before (in Hopewell). We won districts with them in prior years two times, but never states. We didn’t win it easily, we had a number of close games.”
Kandell said that since this was uncharted territory, he would have been happy if the team could get two wins in the regions. The players, of course, felt otherwise.
It looked tough after day one in Albany, N.Y., as E-H had suffered a 5-2 loss to West End in the first round of pool play.
“We knew that team would be one of our toughest competition,” Gambino said. “But we knew one game wouldn’t make a difference, and it worked out.”
Hopewell bounced back to win two Saturday games, 16-0 and 9-8, over Community Athletic (Del.) and Frederick (Md.). then rolled into bracket play by taking a 14-9 win over Niskayuna (NY).
The 15s then ground out two impressive Monday wins, defeating Paulino (NY) in the afternoon before going 11 innings to beat the host team, South Colonie, 7-6 in the semifinals. E-H tied the game with a run in the top of the seventh when Jake Tobia scored on an error, and Gambino threw five scoreless innings before his team got the winning run when Sid Spencer scored on an error.
“That was the craziest game,” Gambino said. “Their whole entire town was there. Our adrenaline was rushing. Their fans were yelling at us, telling us we weren’t giving them a challenge. We were so pumped up to win.”
That brought up the championship game with a World Series trip to Tennessee on the line. The team’s top starters were out but Andy Blake stepped up to pitch 6-plus outstanding innings. But the game went eight frames and, with nothing but tired arms in the bullpen, E-H allowed a grand slam in the eighth to suffer a heartbreaker.
Nonetheless, Ewing-Hopewell took justifiable pride in their accomplishment.
“Our main goal was to get to the state tournament and win the state title,” Gambino said. “Anything after that would have exceeded expectations.”
The team’s roster consisted of Gambino, Blake, Spencer, Margulis, Tobia, Jack Kandell (who had a big grand slam in the regions), Max Brass, Nick Psomaras (one of the team’s top pitchers), Michael Savas, Jake Storer, Kenny Sullivan and Adam Wijaya. John Savas was a coach.
“I think I’ll really remember this team because we know these kids so well,” Kandell said. “The bulk of this team I coached with Chris Tobia since his boys were nine years old. We’re like surrogate fathers to some of them, driving them to games, taking them to places, we’ve done paintball together, go karts in New York.I really feel bad Joe (Gambino) missed out on it, even though he was following us. He’s been there since day one, too.”
The 14s also impressed, winning the District One title. After defeating Hamilton 5-4 in the opener, E-H defeated Lawrence but was forced into a winner-take-all game when Hamilton took a 3-2 victory. Ewing-Hopewell followed with a 7-5 win in the championship game.
“That was tremendous for these kids,” Scaccetti said. “A lot of these guys were playing together since they’ve been eight or nine and haven’t had much success in tournaments.”
In the states, E-H got knocked into the loser’s bracket after suffering a 4-3 loss to Seneca in the opener. The team then won three straight to reach the finals before falling to eventual Mid-Atlantic Region champion Atlantic Shore.
In the regions, E-Hl lost two of the first three. Needing a victory in the fourth game of pool play to have any chance of advancing, they topped Piedmont (Del.) 10-4. But three teams all finished 2-2 and the locals lost out on a head-to-head tie-breaker against Sorensco, N.Y.
“That was huge,” Scaccetti said of the Piedmont win. “At that point we did not control our own destiny, the only thing we could control was to go out and win that game against Delaware and hope for the best. They went out and took care of what they had to take care of. I couldn’t be more happy with the way they came out and the effort they gave me this summer.”
The team consisted of Tyrique Alston, Luke Blair, Drew Brodine, Edward Chmara, Ryan Coughlin, Dakota Ditmars, Bo Hartpence, Brendan Jackson, Dylan Joyce, Matthew Nyce, Marc Porpora, Charlie Potter, Kyle Randazzo, Robert Rose and Anthony Yarson. Al Arcamone and Rob Rose were coaches.
“We had a good mix of everything,” Scaccetti said. “These kids knew from day one about nine or 10 of them could go out and win a game for us. One game it was somebody, another game, it was somebody else stepping up and carrying us all the way through states.”
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