Chad Brunner throws a pitch during the District 12 final against Nottingham at Sunnybrae on July 11, 2015. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Tyler Mercantini eyes the play across the field during a 5-1 loss in the District 12 final on July 11, 2015. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
In the “what have you done for me lately” world of sports, it’s a team’s most recent outcome that tends to stand out in people’s minds.
But that should not be the case for this year’s Robbinsville 12-year-old Little League All-Stars.
They should be remembered for their body of work over five years, which included some memorable highlights. Even more importantly, they are a group of kids who enjoyed what they did regardless of the outcome.
Unfortunately, the RLL 12s’ District 12 careers ended in disappointing fashion. After defeating Nottingham in the winner’s bracket finals, they needed to beat the reigning champion just once in two games to claim the title. But Nottingham won two straight to win the league’s fifth straight district championship.
Still, that cannot take away from numerous titles won by the team as 8 and 9 year-olds, a semifinal District 12 finish as 10s and the league’s third district title as 11s, which followed a championship by last year’s 10-year-olds.
“This was a great team,” said shortstop/leadoff hitter Shane Martin, the team’s sparkplug. “It was a lot of fun playing with them, the whole experience of playing in districts. We thought we could come out and win this year and we really wanted to. We just didn’t. But we had a lot of fun.”
Martin was one of seven players who were with the team all five years, along with Chad Brunner, Danny Surtz, Pat Cettina, Ryan Smith, Aidan Bechamps and Mike Stamboulian. Coming on board as the years went along were Keith Motusesky, Tyler Mercantini, Ben Quinn, Kyle Madera and Ryan Visich.
Despite this year’s loss, the squad maintained the right attitude.
“We felt we had a good chance to win it, so it was pretty tough,” Brunner said. “But districts was always fun. Winning or losing, we always had fun.”
And that made it easy for manager Keith Motusesky, whose previous RLL managerial experience was with the ultra-successful softball program.
“It was just a great group of kids and parents,” Motusesky said. “We didn’t have any issues with the parents. You couldn’t ask for a better group.”
The team was put together by Todd Brunner, Chad’s dad, when the players were 8. They started as a Hamilton A’s travel team and then evolved into the Robbinsville Rebels.
“Travel ball helped them a lot,” Motusesky said. “It taught them a lot of situations and repetitions. It taught them how to swing properly. And Todd taught them a lot.”
The manager said that while Martin and Brunner were the team’s leaders, “they have all contributed through the years.”
It looked like the team would go out in style after hanging on for a 10-8 win over Nottingham in the winner’s bracket finals. With the score 10-6 and runners on second and third and one out in the sixth, Martin made a diving stop on what looked like a two-run single and turned it into an RBI groundout to help short circuit what could have been a big problem. Martin also hit a three-run homer in the game, and Visich hit a pinch two-run homer.
Nottingham went on to beat Sunnybrae in the loser’s bracket and were tasked with beating Robbinsville twice. NLL won big on Friday night, 12-1, to force the “if” game on Saturday.
“We were going into that championship game thinking we’d win, especially with Ryan (Smith) pitching,” Martin said. “We played hard. It was getting frustrating. We hit really hard line drives right at kids and they made great plays.”
The result was a 5-1 loss, but Martin brought up a good point. Robbinsville smoked a number of balls that went right to fielders.
The tone was set in the first inning. With runners on first and second and one out, Surtz crushed one to right that, had it gone a foot to the right or left would have been a two-run double. But it went right to Jack Moticha, who threw to second to complete an inning-ending double play. Similar scenes would be repeated throughout the game.
“The first game we lost to them, we just didn’t hit the ball hard,” Motusesky. “In that next game, I just kept saying ‘When are we going to get the big hit?’ I thought we were in good shape to break out of it and I saw us hitting the ball hard. I thought it would just be a matter of time.”
Robbinsville didn’t go down meekly, loading the bases with two outs in the sixth to bring the tying run to the plate before a ground out ended it. It was a bit of a stunner for a team that was on the cusp of being the first RLL 12-year-old team to win districts.
“I think it was a big disappointment,” Motusesky said. “I think we were kind of shocked we didn’t win. We have all the respect for Nottingham, they’re a great team. Personally I thought we had a better team, but they beat us and that’s what counts. Our kids were surprised they lost and very disappointed that we weren’t moving on.”
But kids heal quickly, and a week later, Brunner and Martin had nothing but good things to say about what they had gone through together.
“Winning districts last year meant a lot to us,” Brunner said. “We we weren’t expected to win. Our first tryout we only had eight players. So we didn’t think we would win, but we did. (Overall) I think we had a pretty good run. We played really well as a team, we got to know each other and make friends.”
And that’s a refreshing attitude, since that’s what little league baseball is meant to be like.
“Winning districts last year was awesome, it was a great experience,” Martin said. “We had a lot of fun and we came into this year thinking we’d have a lot of fun. We didn’t feel any pressure, we just wanted to have fun. Even though we lost we still had an amazing time.”
And when judging the overall body of work for 8-12 year-old kids, it gets no better than that.
,
