by James Ryder
The 11u LI Thunder and Long Island Baseball faced off in a playoff matchup Friday night at Wantagh Field. After a back and forth affair, the Thunder took a two-run lead, which expanded to as many as five runs. LIB made a late push in the bottom of the sixth, but were eventually put away by the Thunder, who won 8-6.
Both teams went scoreless in the first inning. The Thunder took the lead first in the top of the second. Aiden McCarthy and Luke Walsh hit back-toback singles to get on base. Brady Henderson’s grounder to third caused and error, allowing McCarthy to score. Walsh was then driven in on Christian Gallasso’s RBI single down the left field line to make it 2-0.
LIB responded quickly and took their only lead on the biggest hit of the night. Ryan Kunkle hit a 3-run inside the park home run to right-center field to put his team up 3-2. The next inning, the Thunder tied it up 3-3 when Ben Cohen’s pop-fly hit the ground due to some miscommunication in the outfield.
LIB was kept scoreless until the sixth, allowing the Thunder to slowly build their lead. In the top of the fourth, the Thunder took the lead back 5-3. Again, it was Gallasso with the single, this time to RCF for another 2 RBI’s. In the fifth, Taylor Tinitsch tacked one run on with a double to LCF. Then in the sixth, Gallasso added his final 2 RBI’s with a double that gave the Thunder an 8-3 lead to work with.
Turns out, the Thunder needed nearly every single one of those safety runs. LIB hit back to back singles to begin the bottom of the sixth. These were courtesy of Jack Degnan and Nick Kramer, who both stole a base to give Brito runners in scoring position once again. He hit an RBI single to bring them closer with the score now 8-4. Next, home was stolen by Kramer and an error was made by the shortstop to make it 8-6. Finally, the Thunder forced a pop-out for the third out.
Final Score: Thunder win 8-6. Here is Christian Galasso talking about his 3 hit and 5 RBI night: pic.twitter.com/gV4XMbicnA
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 10, 2019
The Thunder score a lot of runs, which ended up being just enough to escape LIB’s late push. Gallasso was the biggest offensive factor for the Thunder, as he finished with 5 RBI’s on three hits. Final Score: Thunder 8, LIB 6.
