Morristown wins regional opener
Pitchers Stewart, Bilodeau turn in strong performances as Nottingham falls by the wayside
BY MAURICE BROOKS
Daily Record
MILLVILLE – Victories for the Morristown Babe Ruth 13-15-year-old team are measured in miles.
Eight hundred down, 2,400 to go.
Morristown defeated Nottingham, 6-2, in its first game of the Babe Ruth Middle Atlantic Regional tournament yesterday. Morristown will play New Castle, Del. in the winners bracket today at 7:30 p.m.
It is approximately 3,200 miles between Millville—home of the regional tournament—and Longview, Wash., site of the Babe Ruth World Series.
With the victory over Nottingham, Morristown moved one step closer and needs three more victories to capture the town’s first regional title.
MORRISTOWN 6, NOTTINGHAM 2
Babe Ruth Middle Atlantic Regional Tournament 13-15-year-olds
“Physically we were ready to play but mentally I don’t think that we were,” Morristown head coach Ray Mosso said. “We had scrimmaged them earlier and I thought that would help us today. It almost hurt us because I don’t think we were as focused as we could have been.”
Although Bob Bilodeau earned the pitching victory for Morristown, starter Jason Stewart gave his team a solid outing.
The right-hander allowed one run, four hits and three walks in 3 2-3 innings. Bilodeau pitched 3 1-3 innings of two-hit relief.
“Jason gave us everything we wanted,” Mosso said. “I chose him as my starter today because looking at the stats he had thrown the same amount of innings as my other pitchers but had given up fewer hits and runs.”
“He was so fired up at the start of the game that you knew that he was going to walk the first batter. But then he settled down.”
Stewart did walk the first batter, got Nottingham’s second batter to ground into a fielder’s choice, then hit the third batter to put runners on first and second with one out. But he struck out cleanup batter Mike Santoro and got Ed Francis to fly out to right field to end the first inning.
Morristown was able to overcome some shaky base running with timely hitting.
Tom Olivo hit a one-out double for Morristown in the bottom of the first. Evan Davis, who was chosen as Morristown’s MVP of the game, followed with a single to put runners on first and third.
With Rob Ogilvie up to bat, Davis was caught in a rundown in an attempted pickoff. Olivo broke for home and was thrown out at the plate. Ogilvie hit the next pitch to left for an RBI single to give Morristown a 1-0 lead.
Dave Molinaro walked and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second to extend Morristown’s lead to 2-0.
Nottingham’s Mark Conklin hit an RBI single—the third hit of the inning—in the fourth to cut the Morristown lead to 2-1 and chase
