The New York Grays knew they needed a big performance from their starting pitcher coming into today’s quarterfinal game and that is exactly what Jose Almonte gave them.
The hard throwing right hander came out firing against the high-octane offense of the LI Strong. The command of his fastball, coupled with a big sweeping curveball was able to keep opposing batters off balance, allowing only 1 hit which was a 2-run homer in the 4th inning. Almonte finished with a final line of 6.0IP, 10K, 5BB. 1H, 2ER and provided the Grays with the exact boost they needed to send them to the next round.
The Grays bats got to work early, leading off the game with 3 base hits in a row. RBI hits from Faulsto Leonardo, Pepe Villamil, and Fordham commit Jason Mark gave the Grays a 3-0 lead in the first.
The Grays would score again in the 3rd inning, tacking on another 2 due to Carlos Castillo sacrifice fly that scored first basemen and St. Johns commit, Jason Sosa, and a passed ball that scored Almonte.
The Strong would finally get on the board in the 4th inning. To get things started, second basemen, Nick Lopez, got on with a walk and took and took second on a passed ball. The next batter, Brad Sakellarides, drove them both in with a monstrous 2 run homer that cleared the right field fence by at least 30 feet.
Although it seemed that the Strong had finally gotten to Almonte and were ready to make a run at a comeback, Almonte stopped them dead in their tracks, striking out the next batter for the final out of the inning. Almonte would allow only 2 base runners for the reminder of the game.
The Grays finished up the scoring with a run on another passed ball in the 5th inning and a line drive home run by Pepe Villamil in the 6th that cleared the left-center field fence in the blink of an eye. Villamil’s homer was without a doubt the hardest hit ball of the day
The Grays will look to ride their hot offense into the next round of the playoffs later on this week.
