Final: Massapequa Cyclones 4, LI Titans 2
Anthony Femia was the winning pitcher and hit the go-ahead home run pic.twitter.com/NoOwa1zPey
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 11, 2019
What happens when one of the elite travel organizations in the region squares off against a town travel team comprised of players from the top high school on Long Island?
A tightly-contested game in which the tying run is stranded in scoring position in the seventh inning.
The LI Titans and Massapequa Cyclones faced off in the opening game of the fifth annual Brian Moore Memorial Tournament with the hometown Cyclones coming away victorious, 4-2, with the tying run scoring on second base in the top of the seventh.
The Cyclones took a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth on a solo shot by Anthony Femia. The rising junior turned on an inside fastball and crushed it to straightaway left field to put the Cyclones ahead, 3-2. They added an insurance run later that inning on an RBI double to extend it to 4-2.
Femia went out for the seventh inning against the bottom of the order but allowed a one-out bloop single to second base in which he failed to cover first base. It nearly cost him as the a wild pitch and another infield single made it second & third with one out. After a strikeout of Will Park, he hit Joan Rodriguez to load the bases with two outs but he was able to bear own and induce a game-ending force out off the bat of Matt Rahl.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth when Connor Naus smoked an RBI single to score Justin Sonzone to make it 1-0 in favor of the Cyclones. They added another run in the fifth on an RBI single to left field.
Just when they appeared defeated, the Titans rallied to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by lead off man Anthony Albertsen and an RBI infield ground out by Matt Rahl.
The Cyclones, following typical Massapequa fashion, found late-inning magic, just as the Chiefs did in the Long Island Championship. Femia was the hero and they are now in great position as they enter the second day of the tournament.
