West Essex Under-17 Team Batters Belleville

Even without four starters, the West Essex Under-17 traveling baseball team made quick work of Belleville on Friday.

The Knights scored eight runs in the first inning en route to a 13-1 win in a game that was called after the top half of the fourth inning at West Essex High School.

West Essex improved to 4-5-1 and remains in contention for next week's league tournament with three regular-season games remaining.

Shortstop Jim Ernst and third baseman Nour Aly made strong plays on defense and lefty Cliff Brockman allowed just two hits and struck out seven over four innings against Belleville (0-8).

"Every team we've lost to were two-run games, absolute games we could have won either way, a play here, a play there, a defensive error there, a timely hit there," West Essex coach Anthony Angelo said.

"When the playoffs start, there's no reason we can't win the whole thing, but we have kids who have other commitments, we're trying to have more of a developmental, cohesive approach to the 17-and-unders, so it's frustrating when guys aren't showing up when they should be and putting their high school team first."

Angelo expects the players who missed the game to be back for the playoffs.

But the ones who did show up did just fine.

West Essex sent 13 players to the plate in the first inning as Brockman began the run-scoring barrage with an RBI groundout.

The Knights added to their lead with three more runs in the second as Pat Nichols drove in a run with a triple over the center fielder's head, while Feldman and Ernst also added RBI hits.

"More than anything, you have respect for your opponents, you don't ever know when you come to the field if you're going to be on that end," Angelo said as his team recorded its second mercy-rule victory over Belleville this season.

"That's the main focus. You work on your fundamentals. We played a good game on defense. You take a more defensive approach and work on your fundamentals, that kind of stuff. It's more a mental test to stay in the game. That's all you can do."

In addition to his contributions at the plate, Ernst had a strong defensive game as he made a nice play on Belleville shortstop Enrique Camacho's sharp grounder and threw to Nichols at first to get the out with plenty of time in the top of the second inning. The shortstop finished off the game by recording the final out.

"We just had it today," Ernst said. "We knew we had to get through innings quickly to just get through it. We were good in the field today."