Janesville 14U Babe Ruth team uses big comeback to advance to championship bracket

The Janesville U14 Babe Ruth baseball team earned the admiration of its head coach Tuesday afternoon.

Just more than 13 hours after suffering a 10-0 loss in the 2024 U14 World Series on Monday night to host team Eagle Pass, Texas, Janesville found itself down 5-0 in the third inning of its bracket game against Braintree, Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon.

The Generals scrambled to score five runs in the third and went on to use a squeeze bunt to score the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to post a 7-6 victory in Eagle Pass.

“Every kid on this team today played with guts and passion,” Janesville coach Tom Davey said. “Their backs were against the wall.”

The victory put Janesville in the championship bracket of the World Series with seven other teams.

All eight winners of the games Tuesday earned a day off Wednesday.

The Generals will play Alabama at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The winner of that game moves on to play at least two more games and will finish no worse than fourth in the World Series.

Janesville fell behind Braintree 5-0 after the Massachusetts club scored three runs in the second and added two in the third inning.

But Janesville tied it with a five-run bottom of the third inning. Singles by Eli Demrow and Joe Trumpy drove in the Generals’ first two runs.

Colton Smalley then delivered a two-RBI double to get Janesville to within 5-4, and Hank Nickols tied the game with a squeeze bunt.

Braintree regained the lead with a run in the fifth, after a controversial call took Janesville’s go-ahead run in the fourth off the board. Janesville attempted a delayed double steal with runners on first and third with two outs.

The catcher’s throw to second was cut off by the shortstop and the throw to the catcher was up the third base line. The Janesville baserunner collided with the catcher and scored.

After a conference that included the tournament director, the umpires ruled the runner maliciously went into the catcher and was declared out and ejected from the game. Davey disputed the call to no avail.

Janesville tied the game at 6-all with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning on Bode Reed’s clutch two-out RBI single.

Janesville relief pitcher Trae Forrett retired Braintree 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh. Forrett, who has pitched in all four World Series games, earned the win by pitching four innings Tuesday.

The Generals won the game in the bottom of the inning when Trumpy dropped down a suicide squeeze bunt to score Trenton Jacobson from third base with one out. Jacobson started the inning with a walk and went to second on a wild pitch.

Demrow sacrificed Jacobson to third and Trumpy got him home to end the game.

“A lot of things were going against us,” Davey said. “Some great late-inning execution set up the win.”

And Janesville remained alive to win the national title because of it.

• LINESCORE:

JANESVILLE 7, BRAINTREE 6

Braintree 032 010 0 — 6 11 1

Janesville 005 001 1 — 7 7 1

Janesville leading hitters—Trumpy 2x4. 2B—Smalley.

Janesville pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)—Trumpy 3-8-5-5-2-2; Forrett (W), 4-3-1-1-0-3