The test of a good team is the ability to overcome adversity and not wave the white flag. LI Elite showed incredible resiliency today in a 7-4 extra inning win in the 16U Columbus Day Tournament Finals against a terrific Next Level Baseball team.
“We said we’d get into a slug fest today and we go punched in the face and bounced back,” said Head Coach Appel. “We’ve been a bend-but-don’t break team but any time we play a big game we seem to show up. Today we were able to foul off curveballs and hunt fastballs,” he added.
They faced a very good pitcher in JJ Gatti. The hard-throwing righty had great stuff but he ran into some trouble leaving the ball up in this game. LI Elite scored two runs in the top of the second on a sac fly by Ryan Desmond and an RBI single by Mike Hopkins. They compiled four hits in the inning, proving that they can swing the bats.
Next Level Baseball got one back in the bottom of the third on an RBI ground out by Joe Hauser. They threatened to score more, as they loaded the bases with nobody out but Desmond was able to bear down when he needed to and held them to one run.
In the top of the fourth inning, Elite really did some damage after a lead off walk to Blake Bastos. A double and an RBI ground out by Andrew Lennenberg gave them a 3-1 lead and an error allowed them to extend it to 4-1.
Just when it appeared that the game was in hand, Next Level fought back with two runs in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI ground out by Hauser and a while pitch scored Michael Gatti. In the seventh inning, they continued to show their toughness when they tied it up on an RBI single by Sean Britt. There was only out out and they forced Elite to make a pitching change, but the reliever, JC Kiss, was able to make the big pitches to send the game into extras.
In the top of the eighth, their bats came through once again. Blake Bastos smoked a two-run double to left center field and they added another to open up a comfortable three-run lead. Kiss was able to make those runs stand up to deliver his team the trophy.
