Final: MVP Beast 8, Premier Baseball 0 (5-inning mercy)
WP: Jake KrzemienskiRistano: 3-for-3, 2 RBI pic.twitter.com/YR8LpE6hIP
— Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) October 5, 2017
It is not uncommon for Long Island teams to struggle in national tournament against elite teams, especially in a tournament such as Perfect Game‘s WWBA Underclass World Championship.
Someone forgot to tell MVP Beast that, as they mercied Premier Baseball, a team from Texas, by the score of 8-0 in five innings.
Head Coach Pete Kritikos was not surprised one bit by his team’s performance.
“The guys that have been with us since they were 11-years-old just know what to do,” said Kritikos. “And to be honest with you, we’ve been there before. Whether we’ve won or lost, we’ve been in big games and we find ways. Today they jumped on a big lefty from Texas and it worked out well,” he added.
After a scoreless first inning, they scored two runs in the second inning on an RBI single by Zach Transue to score Aidan Tornquist. He came around to score on an RBI single by Dillon Ristano (3-for-3, 2 RBI).
Their starting pitcher, Jake Krzemienski (Commack 2019) looked sharp in his 2.2 IP of work. He fanned four batters and allowed just one hit. He hit 83 MPH in front of coaches from St. John’s, Stony Brook, Fordham, Villanova and Tennessee.
Kritikos noted that the LHP has lost just three games since he was 10-years-old, estimating that he’s won 37 games during that time frame. He worked quick, fired strikes and got plenty of swings and misses.
He was relieved by Ethan Farino (Ward Melville 2019). Using a deceptive sidearm delivery, he stymied the opposition for the final 2.1 IP, allowing no runs on one hit and consistently inducing weak contact.
The offense went to work in the third inning with a four-spot–all after the first two batters were retired.
Max Mariano started it up with a single through the left side and he came around to score on Tim McHugh’s rocket RBI triple through the wind in left-center field. McHugh immediately scored on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 4-0. After consecutive walks, Ethan Farino sent them both in on an RBI single down the left field line, but was thrown out at second attempting to extend.
That was all the offense necessary, but they added two more in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Farino and an RBI single by Ristano to open up an 8-0 lead.
Kritikos added that they will have a great challenge tomorrow facing Evoshield Florida, who has three players committed to the University of Central Florida and two committed to Florida International University.
Their projected starting pitcher touched 93 MPH, which offers the players from Long Island a unique opportunity to play in front of several college coaches from elite universities.
They will be back at it tomorrow at 2pm.
