Here’s an interview with Alex Abi-Zeid, who hit the RBI groundout for the final run. He also started the game as the pitcher and record the first 17 outs of the 18 out game pic.twitter.com/bhCgLn4yCn
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 15, 2019
by James Ryder
An 11u game between the LI Black Diamonds and the Plainview Hawks took place Saturday morning at Haypath Park. Both teams kept it close throughout with each of their starting pitchers going deep into the game. In the end, it was the Black Diamonds pitching and offense that edged out the Hawks late in the game giving them the 6-5 win.
Ryan Buckhardt took the mound for Plainview and went to work with his tricky change up. He struck out the first two batters and then, despite walking the third batter, forced a ground out to shortstop for the third out. The Hawks were the first to get on the scoreboard. In the bottom of the first, lead off hitter Aaron Traub reached first when his ground ball forced the SS to make an error. After stealing second and going to third on a pass ball, Traub was plated on Josh Kim’s sac-fly to right field for a 1-0 lead.
LI started the second inning by scoring one run of their own. Alex Abi-Zeid hit a single to center field and stole second base. DJ Stewart followed him up with another single that scored Abi-Zeid. Plainview responded by scoring two more runs to take their second and final lead of the game. A two out rally began when Ryan Healy was hit by a pitch. He made Buckhardt pay for it by stealing second and third base. Ethan Bank walked and came home along with Healy thanks to Logan Todisio’s 2-run double. The inning ended with the score now 3-1.
The Black Diamonds tied it up once again in the top of the third inning. Tommy Robliotta had a leadoff walk, stole second, and was moved to third on James Sabela’s single to CF. Trying to hold Robliotta at third, Buckhardt threw to the base but the third baseman let it pass him. This allowed Robliotta to go home making it a 3-2 game. Directly proceeding this, Mickey Durso hit an opposite field triple to bring in Sabela and tie it.
LI got back in the batter’s box and took their first lead of the day in the top of the fourth inning on one very unique play. Abi-Zeid reached first on an error by the SS and stole second base. Stewart walked and he and Abi-Zeid stole second and third. This led to CJ DiBenedetto striking out, but the ball was dropped by the catcher and rolled to the back stop. The catcher threw to first to get DiBenedetto out, but Abi-Zeid scored as the ball was reaching the base. Stewart also scored despite starting at second base and just made it before the first baseman could throw it back to home. This odd sequence made the score 5-3.
As the Black Diamonds had twice before them, Plainview tied the game right back up in the next frame. Josh Kim reached first on another error at SS and stole second and third. Next, Buckhardt hit a single to CF which brought the score to 5-4. He then stole second base and went right to third when the attempt to throw him out sailed into shallow CF. This allowed Rick “Pickle” Pirozzi to hit an RBI ground out to 2nd base to tie the game at 5.
A scoreless fifth inning meant the Black Diamonds potentially had one last chance to win as long as the Hawks didn’t walk-off. With the heart of the lineup coming to the plate, LI scored the final fun of the game. Chris Spatenga worked a leadoff walk and stole second and third. Goodwin also walked, which brought Abi-Zeid to bat with another RBI opportunity. He came through with a ground ball to the shortstop that scored Spatenga to give LI a 6-5 lead going into the bottom of the sixth.
Abi-Zeid, who was also the starting pitcher for LI, approached the mound to try and throw the complete game. It looked good for him when he struck out the first two batters, but, unfortunately, Pirozzi hit a single off of him and stole second base. This was the end for Abi-Zeid and the chance for Evan Byrnes to close out the game. Byrnes on only two pitches forced Healy to pop out to CF to end the game. Despite not finishing the game on the mound, Abi-Zeid was the force that the Black Diamonds needed to keep pace with the Hawks. Also, he of course brought home the deciding run to go along with his other RBI and 5 2/3 innings pitched. Final Score: LI 6, Plainview 5.
