Axcess player of the game Liam Leonard discusses how he felt his stuff was working on the mound today. Leonard entered the game in the top of the 3rd trailing 3-2 and pitched 4 scoreless innings with 5 k’s and only 2 hits allowed, helping lead his team to their 8-3 victory. pic.twitter.com/09vbwA2cd8
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 8, 2018
Baseball like most other sports is a game of momentum. One little thing can change the outcome of a game dramatically.
In this case, though, instead of one little thing, the more proper thing to say would be one big inning.
In a 15u Boys of Summer clash between Beast White and the B1000 Seminoles, Beast White jumped out to a quick lead in the top of the 1st inning. Josh DeCicco drove in Kelly Burke with an RBI single to get Beast off to a hot start.
The B1000 Seminoles immediately answered in the bottom of the 1st, scoring a run of their own after leadoff batter Liam Leonard came in to score on an RBI single off the bat of Backcom.
In the top of the 2nd, Beast struck again, this time scoring 2 runs with a 2 RBI double off the bat of Josh Rizzo.
Jordan Nissinoff led off the bottom of the 2nd for the Seminoles with a triple. He would then score on an RBI single from starting pitcher Eddie Kasparian.
Entering the 3rd inning it seemed that this would be a back and forth game with countless momentum shifts. Then just like that, one momentum shift took hold of the game.
Leonard entered in relief on the mound for Kasparian and worked a quick inning to set the tone for the rest of his game.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Seminoles took control of the game bringing 6 runs across on 5 hits, highlighted by Justin Corenzo’s 2 RBI single that broke the game open.
Leonard entered the top of the 4th inning with an 8-3 lead and never looked back. In total, he pitched four scoreless innings, striking out 5 batters and only allowing two hits.
Daniel Pepe closed it out in the top of the 7th for the Seminoles, getting Burke to ground into a fielder’s choice with runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs to seal the 8-3 victory.
After the game, Leonard spoke to me about his lights out four innings of relief stating, “my fastball was working today, my 2-seam was pretty good, my cutter was pretty good too.”
He went on to compliment his team on a strong come from behind win saying, “we fought back from down 3-2, put some runs up on the board and it was a good team win.”
