by James Ryder
After a 3-3 day at the plate, here is John-Albert Franco on the batting advice he gets from his coaches: pic.twitter.com/fkD5ngy4Ut
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 28, 2019
11u Team Beast Red faced off against the Long Island Baseball Roar Friday evening at Wantagh Park. Despite the beautiful weather, the members of Team Beast Red were the only ones who undoubtedly enjoyed their night as they cruised to a 10-1 win.
Long Island Baseball had a rough evening as they threw four different pitchers and stranded several runners on base in what ended up being only a 5-inning game due to mercy rule. Team Beast, meanwhile, scored at least one run in every inning except for the second. They also got four innings from starting pitcher Andrew Mank and a fifth inning save from Jack Gustav.
The first four runs for Team Beast Red came in the top of the first inning. John-Albert Franco, who was the offensive star in this one, gave them a 1-0 lead when his RBI double scored Adrian Cruz from second base. Franco then stole third base and crossed the plate on Michael Brandine’s RBI single up the middle. A bad throw to first base on a ground ball and an RBI single by Jack Powers to right field scored two more to make it 4-0.
Franco led off the third inning with a single to left field and went to second on a pass ball. Brandine brought Franco home again, this time on a double to LF. Following another pass ball that allowed Brandine to steal third, another run came on Gustav’s ground out to second base. This brought the score to 6-0.
LIB responded in the bottom half of the inning when Jayden Valdez scored off of Nick Kramer’s single to LF. As mentioned, this was their only run of the night despite the team reaching base six times. On this same hit, Ryan Kunkn tried going home from second but was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
In the top of the fourth inning, Franco earned his third hit in his third and final at bat. He hit a triple to deep left-center field to bring in Brandon Varlack. Team Beast Red then scored their final three runs in the top of the fifth. Gustav led off with a double and went to third on Marco Pipia’s single. Powers hit a RBI sacrifice fly ball to LF and Varlack later hit a 2 RBI single to make it 10-1.
A few players for Team Beast Red had a great night on the stat sheet. Mank started the game and pitched four innings, giving up only one run on six hits. Gustav had two hits, and RBI groundout and a double, and scored a run to go along with the fifth inning save. Michael Brandine had two RBI’s on two hits and scored twice. And finally, Franco went 3-3 at the plate, hitting a double, single, and triple respectively, finishing with three RBI’s. These big contributions lead to Team Beast Red dominating. Final Score: Beast 10, Roar 1.
