By GEORGE O’GORMAN
gogorman@trentonian.com
EWING – On a night when the Ewing 13-year old all-stars should have been celebrating another big win in the Babe Ruth Middle Atlantic Regional they are hosting, they couldn’t.
Having already locked up a spot in today’s playoff round with their win Thursday, the Ewing boys finished Pool A play with a 3-1 record after a convincing 14-8 victory over Western New york entry North Syracuse Friday night at Moody Park.
The bad news for manager Joe Sparano’s club is that it has to return to Moody bright and early today for a 10 a.m. meeting with Metro New York champ New Millenium from the Bronx in a game that will be broadcast on WRRC ‘The Bronc’ (107.7 FM).
The runner-up in Pool  A plays the third place team from Pool B, with the winner moving on to the semifinal at 4 p.m.
Ewing’s win over North Syracuse, which started two hours late because an earlier game was delayed by rain, wasn’t completed until 10 minutes before midnight. It didn’t give Sparano and his troops much recovery time before they had to be back at Moody by 8:30 this morning.
“We finish second in our pool and we’re punished by having to comeback and play at 10 tomorrow morning,” said the Ewing manager. “It is what it is.
“We didn’t win anything in the states where we were 2-2, and few people gave us a chance in the regional. But the kids have worked hard to get here and should be proud to be 3-1 and second in their regional pool,” said Sparano, who expects to send Steve DeBoskey to the mound this morning, and if Ewing can win would have his son Jimmy Sparano to pitch the afternoon game at 4 p.m. against Pool B winner Clifton Park from Eastern N.Y.
By losing, North Syracuse gets a few more hours sleep and won’t play until 1 p.m. today against Pool B runner-up Monroe, the Northern N.J. champ from nearby Jamesburg.
Monroe’s 6-2 win over Piedmont, Del., in a game played prior to Ewing/North Syracuse, is what put New Millenium into the playoffs with a 2-2 record. Monroe went 3-1 in Pool B but placed behind 3-1 Clifton Park on a tiebreaker.
Ewing’s second straight win saw four pitchers combine to allow 1 2hits and survive despite seven walks and two hit batters.
Eli Paolella continued his hot hitting going 4-for-4 with three RBIs and four runs scored, making him 7-for-8 with four RBI in consecutive games. Jordan Peterson, moved from ninth to fifth in the lineup after he went 3-for-4 with five RBIs the night before, also got on base four times with two hits and two walks.
Ewing scored four runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings to goon top to stay. Maguire Winsor’s two-run single following an RBI triple byTyler Brecko and a sac. fly by DeBoskey helped Ewing rebound from an early 4-0deficit. Paolella drove in two in the fourth and Tyler Mullen and Winsor alsoplated runs break the game  open.
Ewing got three of its four runs in the sixth as Paolella singled, Ray Laraya was hit by a pitch and Mullen grounded out to plate runs.
“We earned this 3-1 record. It wasn’t be default. We played hard,” said Sparano, who even without great pitching saw his 13s finish a close second to 4-0 Pottsville, Pa., which won Pool A buy only after it survived a last-inning five-run Ewing comeback three nights earlier for a 7-5 win.
It’s a loss Ewing would love to have the chance to atone for in the finals SUnday.
Ewing (3-1) 004 440 2 - 14 15  5
North Syracuse (2-2) 221  030 0 - 8 12 1
WP – Muller.  LP – Frawley.
2B – E: Laraya. 3B – E: Brecko. RBI -  NS: Little, Reilly, Kippin, Clark; E: Brecko,Paolella 3, Mullen, Winsor 3, Mullen 2, DeBoskey.