AAABA News > 2009 Tournament News

Jordan Rittiner wasn’t perfect on Saturday afternoon at Point Stadium, but he certainly was good enough to carry New Orleans into the AAABA Tournament title game.

Rittiner and two relievers held New Brunswick to one hit in a 14-0, mercy-rule-shortened victory.

“I was just hitting my spots, and the defense just played well behind,” said Rittiner, who only needed about 50 pitches to limit New Brunswick to one hit in five innings.

Rittiner struck out seven and did not walk a batter. The only Matrix player to reach against Rittiner was Danny Avella, who singled in the second when the ball popped out of center fielder Lucas Leblanc’s glove on a diving attempt.

New Brunswick will play either Brooklyn at 1 p.m. today with New Orleans awaiting the winner of that game.

The Boosters, who will be making their 23rd appearance in the title game and seeking a 13th championship, lost to New Brunswick 5-4 on Monday as Willie Beard limited New Orleans to two runs in seven innings.

Beard started again Saturday, but the results were vastly different. New Orleans got three runs in the first, three more in the second and chased Beard with a pair in the third. In all, he allowed eight runs, all earned, on seven hits in three innings.

He walked six and struck out two.

“That’s the humbling nature of this game,” New Brunswick manager Glenn Fredricks said. “We rolled through the first four games, and we just ran into a superior pitcher and a team that came to hit (Saturday). That kid made every pitch that he intended to make and they hung crooked numbers up on the board in every single inning. You have days like this sometimes. We’ll try to bounce back (today).”

Every batter in New Orleans’ starting lineup scored a run or drove in one. Mason Katz had three hits and drove in three runs while Scott Fabre drove in three and scored three. Kirk Cunningham homered, singled and drove in a pair of runs.

Beau Boudreaux and Lucas Leblanc each had a pair of hits at the top of the order and caused havoc with their speed.

Leblanc stole two bases and scored from second on Boudreaux’s infield single with one out in the fifth.

“The whole team hits,

1 through 9,” Fredricks said.

Combine that with Rittiner’s pitching and the outcome wasn’t in doubt for very long.

“We knew early that we weren’t going to get very many runs off that guy,” Fredricks said of Rittiner. “We were just hoping to pile up enough pitches to where they can’t come back with him (today).”

Even that didn’t work. New Orleans manager Bill Babin said Rittiner will be available to pitch today, as will every Boosters pitcher except ace Joe Zimmerman, who pitched seven innings in Friday’s victory over Toledo.

As for New Brunswick, Fredricks is hoping his team can rebound quickly from its first loss after winning four in a row to start the tournament.

“You’d almost rather lose a game like that than lose a heartbreaker, 3-2, 4-3 and have to go out and bounce back,” he said of the rout. “This one you can put on the backburner. Everybody’s got a loss now and we’ll move forward from here.”