In an evening game between the 15u Body Armor Titans, and LI Junior Ducks Schnupp, the Titans emerged victorious by a score of 9-2. While the Titans ultimately pulled off the victory, it was somewhat of a shaky start for them.
Southpaw Justin Arciniegas was on the mound, and recorded two quick outs. However, he then walked back-to-back batters, and was then unable to make a play on a poorly hit grounder up the third base line. With the bases loaded and two outs, Wilmer Cuevas hit a ground ball up the middle. The Ducks were in luck, as what likely would have been the final out of the inning, actually gave them a 2-0 lead, as the ball struck the second base bag and bounced away from the fielders. Arciniegas was able to regroup, and induced another ground ball, this time for the final out of the inning.
The Titans offense answered right back in the bottom of the inning. Dom Crema led things off with a walk, and advanced to second on a groundout. Kyle Chase smashed a triple to left field, putting the Titans on the board. Dylan Banner then hit a hard ground ball under the glove of the second baseman, tying the game up at 2 runs each. Jake Hall eventually drove in Banner on a ground ball to third, giving the Titans a lead they would not relinquish.
Arciniegas settled down in the second and third innings, allowing just one batter to reach base, inducing lots of weak contact. In came Dom Persichilli to pitch for the Titans in the 4th inning, continuing to limit the Ducks offense.
The bats broke in in a big way for the Titans in the bottom of the 5th inning. Five consecutive batters reached base to start the inning, all eventually coming around to score. The big blow of the inning was a triple off the bat of Persichilli, giving himself a comfortable lead to work with on the mound. He later came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Rocco Hall, extending the Titans’ lead to 9-2, a score that would stand for the remainder of the game.
In his three innings of work on the mound, spanning from the fourth inning through the sixth, Persichilli faced just one batter over the minimum. On what was working well for him, he said “my fastball was pretty good today, and I was getting a lot of outside calls.”
Dom Persichilli on his day on the mound and at the plate. pic.twitter.com/QRenucFU2I
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 13, 2019
Crema came in for the Titans to close out the game, and he set down the Ducks in order, to secure the victory for his team. With the win, the Titans improve to 3-1 on the season, while the Ducks drop to 2-3.
