by Chris Sacchi
Walking into McClaren Stadium, the sight of this year’s Stars and Stripes tournament, the scene instantly brings back emotions of when baseball fans first fell in love with the game.
Young ball players aged 8-12 flocked the two fields in the complex, competing in tournaments with laughs, cheers, and smiles ways only they can.
The 12u championship between the Syosset Braves and the Long Island Thunder was no different, even with the title on the line. Parents on both sides were loud and added an intensity to the game, and the dugout chants were never stronger than normal.
“We’ve been one of the only town teams playing against club teams, but we’ve stayed focused, played good defense, and we’ve been hitting the ball, jumping on pitches to hit,” said the Syosset Braves manager, ready to take on another club team in the Long Island Thunder.
“We’ve has the same guys together here since nine years old… went through tons of struggles, 9’s 10s, 11s, now everything’s sort of coming together here at 12 years old. It’s an amazing experience watching them develop and come together as a team. They’ve built gray friendships and they’re vested in rooting for one another. For them, this is a big deal to get here, so hopefully they can finish it out.”
The Thunder manager took more of recent approach to evaluating his team.
“The semifinal game, against the Queens Hurricanes, we had a lead, they came back, but the boys stayed focused to finish out the game… got the insurance runs they needed.”
He said this about his opponent;
“I see they’re putting up a lot of runs… their last two games they blew the teams out, so they can pound the ball. Solid pitching, solid defense, limit the errors, executive. That’s what we’re looking to do in this championship game.”
The Braves would score in the first inning, after their leadoff man, So, perfectly set the table; walk, stolen base, and a run scored on a base hit by the next batter, Ethan Ramirez. No one else would score, though, as Syosset took a 1-0 lead with the Thunder coming to bat.
Long Island leadoff man Jonathan Deiner must have observed So’s table setting performance and did one of his one, and even upping the ante; a leadoff double, a steal if third, and a run scored on a base hit from number two hitter Kyle Carter.
Unlike the Braves, the Thunder tacked on more after the first run. Tommy Desantis, as part of a 3-3 day, knocked in the next run with a double, He also stole his first of two bases on the day,
prompting some “Tommy’s got wheels” chants from a Thunder dugout now leading 3-1 after one.
Long Island’s dugout only got louder when Nick Williams drove in Nick M on an error by the shortstop, after the latter nick double to open the third.
Syosset battled in the top of the fifth to get two runs. Ramirez scored on a Hartelli base hit, who then stole and scored in a double from Macpherson to trial only two, 4-3.
Long Island saw their lead shrink to just one, but gave themselves more of a cushion with the bottom of their 12 man order. Tony Asardo, Gerardi, and Justin Haulek all got on base and scored in the bottom on the fifth to make it 7-3, and the Thunder added one more to bring it to 8-3.
Just three outs away, the Thunder stifled a Braves rally, with the bases loaded, to secure the championship. Their emotion and joy can’t truly be explained in writing; the video of the final out is on the Axcess Baseball Twitter, along with some early game cuts.
