South Orange/Maplewood 12u travel baseball team is heading to States in the Cal Ripken tournament after beating Mountainside/Berkely Heights 10-8 Thursday night in the District #12 semi-finals. District finalists advance to the State tournament. The Cougars will now play for the District title Saturday against Summit @ 1:30 at Gumbert Park in Westfield.
After spotting Mountainside-BH a 3-0 lead, the Cougars came back to tie the game in the bottom of the first and then broke the game open with 5 runs in the bottom of the second. Owen Belisle crushed a 3-run homer to deep center and Nolan Secor later followed with a 2-run double to the fence. Secor led the Cougars with 4 RBIs. Secor, Zac Calveric and Ben Leepson each had two hits on the night for the Cougars.
Ryan Leibensberger got the win for the Cougars, pitching 2 and 2/3 innings in relief with 4 strikeouts. Adam Carlucci and CK Epstein combined to close out the game as Mountainside tried to make a comeback in the sixth.
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The Cougars are now 5-0 in the tournament after winning all four games in pool play. This is the second time this age group is heading to States. The Cougars won the District #12 title in 2016 at age 8u.