By: Tyler Stephan 

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. -- Untamed Baseball faced the Essex Cubs in a doubleheader on Sunday, June 25, in a matchup featuring two teams in the bottom half of the ABCCL North division. Untamed relied on their bats to outslug the Cubs and win 13-7 on a hot and sunny day at Snyder Field.

Both Christopher Valencia for the Cubs and Spencer Nicely for Untamed allowed a batter to reach base on a walk in the first inning, stranding the runners to go into the second inning scoreless. The Cubs threatened in the top of the second inning, starting the inning with a walk by Richard Bukowski followed by a single by Kyler Shepherd. Spencer Nicely, however, settled in, retiring the next three batters on two first-pitch flyouts and a strikeout. 

Untamed also threatened in the bottom of the second, scoring one run on a falling line drive that shortstop Sean Brown failed to handle, but David Olsakowski was thrown out at home on the play trying to score from second base to end the inning.

Untamed added to their 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third as Valencia struggled to throw strikes for the Cubs, and relief pitcher Ian Malone was also wild. Following two walks by Valencia, Ian Malone came in to try to shut Untamed down. Shortstop Zach Revuelta had other plans, as he lined the first pitch to right field, which rolled to the wall for a two-run triple. Malone then walked Jack Burke and Max Oswald before giving up an RBI line drive single up the middle to Daniel Cowles. Malone would give up one more run on a sac fly before getting out of the inning with Untamed up 6-0.  

The Cubs threatened again in the top of the fourth, with runners on second and third and one out following a double by Bukowski and a single by Shepherd. The inning quickly came to an end on a line drive off the bat of Angel Colón. The liner went straight to third baseman Nicolas Lorenzo who caught the ball and dove to the third base bag to complete an inning-ending double play. 

Untamed added one run in the bottom of the fourth inning on a double by Connor Wengryn, followed by four straight walks before a 5-3 double play ended the inning.

The Cubs cut Untamed’s lead to 7-2 in the top of the fifth inning as Zachary Saunders drove in a run on an infield single to the second baseman, and Tyler Giordano hit a line drive to right field to plate the second run. Saunders was gunned down at home plate on a nice throw by center fielder Michael Mele to end the inning.

The Cubs cut the lead to 7-5 in the top of the sixth inning off of Untamed pitcher Liam Royster. Kyler Shepherd hit an RBI single and Ian Wilson hit an RBI double that went right over the third base bag. 

Untamed used a seven-hit and six-run bottom of the sixth inning against Cubs pitcher Michael Malloy to open the lead back up to 13-5.

The Cubs added two runs in the top of the seventh inning as Richard Bukowski hit a no-doubt home run way over the left field fence, but Royster settled down for Untamed and finished the seventh inning to give Untamed a 13-7 win. 

Untamed improved to 4-11 with the win, and the Cubs fell to 3-11 with the loss. Game two of the doubleheader was suspended in the bottom of the first inning in a scoreless game due to lightning and rain and will be resumed at a later date.