Titans tie it up in the sixth inning on an RBI single by Travis Gfrerer and an RBI ground out by Matt Nowlan. 4-4 bottom 6 pic.twitter.com/yBJSk6rTvy
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 2, 2019
The Rising Stars Junior Ducks 12U got off to a quick start on Monday evening, leading 4-0 in the top of the second inning against a primetime pitcher in Trey Zaffiro.
What appeared to be a comfortable lead, wound up not lasting as the LI Titans fought back and tied it up in the sixth inning in what ultimately would end in a 4-4 tie.
The Ducks got on the board in the first inning on an RBI ground out by Pete Bounogias. Thomas Costarelli scored on the play, he led off the game with a single and stole second base.
Zaffiro, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher ended the first inning with his first of seven strikeouts on the evening.
The Ducks sent Matt Brienza to the mound. After striking out the side in the first inning, he allowed a lead off single to Danny Moccio, but he worked around it by retiring the next three batters.
In the bottom of the second, a one-out error allowed the Ducks to start their rally. Back-to-back walks sent up Dylan Colon who roped a three-run double to right field to score Ryan Earl, Matt Brienza and John Ferrante.
At that point, it seemed like it was all Junior Ducks, but when you have a stud pitcher on the mound they tend to bear down and not let things get out of control.
Zaffiro worked out of the jam unscathed after that in the second and went on to fire scoreless innings in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to let his offense have an opportunity to come back in the game.
The Titans got on the board in the third on an E4 which scored Jason Romance from third.
In the top of the fourth, a leadoff single by Moccio sparked another rally. The next batter hit a grounder back to the pitcher, which could’ve resulted in a double play, but he opted for the sure out at first which put the runner in scoring position. That wound up costing them a run as Ben Valentino smoked a single to center field to drive in Moccio and make it 4-2.
In the top of the sixth, the Ducks sent hard-throwing southpaw Thomas Costarelli to the mound for the save.
A lead off ground out was followed by a single by Jake Scharlat and another by Moccio to bring up Travis Gfrerer. The righty laced one down the right field line to make it 4-3 with the tying run on third and go-ahead run on first.
Matt Nowlan hit a chopper to third that allowed the tying run to score from third. The next batter grounded out to end the threat.
Trey Zaffiro struck out 7 over six innings including three in the final inning. He discusses coming back from 4 run deficit in the third pic.twitter.com/bW1MvvNbYl
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 2, 2019
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Zaffiro worked around a two-out single to Tommy Ford and struck out three batters in the inning. The game ended in a 4-4 tie.
