Published: August 16, 2009 11:39 pm      

New Orleans blanks New Brunswick for 13th AAABA title

Thirteen was the lucky number of the day for New Orleans Sunday in the championship game of the 65th annual AAABA Tournament.

The Boosters put nine runs on the board, three of them earned, in a 9-0 victory over New Brunswick in the title tilt for New Orleans’ 13th tournament crown, its first since 2000.

“To come my first year and win it all, I never expected this at all,” first-year New Orleans manager Bill Babin said.

“The kids really did a great job.”

Winning pitcher Nate Fury struck out 13, scattering five hits with just two walks in the shutout.

“Just outstanding,” Babin said about his pitcher.

“Nate won earlier in the tournament, 3-2, in an unbelievably gutty performance and (Sunday) he just wouldn’t come out of there. All the kids pull so much for Nate.

“He’s one of the most popular players on the team and he is such a competitor so that’s why I left him start the eighth inning. He really wanted to finish, but I thought it was fitting because of his performance to let Jordan Rittiner finish.

“He also had two big wins for us in the tournament. The beauty of Nate and Jordan is they’re good friends and like the rest of the kids on the team they pull for each other. It didn’t matter to them who was in there, they just wanted the team to win.”

By the luck of the bracket, New Orleans (6-1) and New Brunswick (5-2) had faced each other three times in this year’s tournament.

The Matrix won 5-4 on opening day then New Orleans shut them out in the final two games on Saturday and Sunday.

“What can you say about New Orleans?” said New Brunswick manager Glenn Fredricks, whose team had to beat Brooklyn in the early game Sunday to earn the team’s first appearance in the title tilt.

“After losing to us in Game 1, they came back to win the whole thing and hit their way back into the tournament.

“They deserved to win that game. They shut us out for the final 17 innings. They deserved it 100 percent.”

On Sunday, the New Orleans offense went to work early, scoring a run in first on a hit batsman and a double by batting champ Scott Fabre, who also had a triple and scored twice.

The Boosters tacked on runs in the third, fifth and sixth for a 4-0 advantage.

The wheels came off for New Brunswick in the eighth and its long day seemed to catch up with it, as the Matrix committed three errors allowing five unearned runs to cross the plate.

“We had a distinct advantage because we only had to play one game (Sunday),” Babin said. “ I think they just run out of gas, having to play that extra game.”

Dylan Laguna was 3-for-5 for New Brunswick and Alberto Ruiz and Chris Grime each contributed a double.