Long Island Baseball captures the 15U Championship with a 7-6 come-from-behind victory.
Sadier Vicioso fired four hitless innings in relief to record the win pic.twitter.com/uAZQdJT10K
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 14, 2019
It’s not often that you see a 6-0 lead squandered, and it’s even more rare in a Championship game when runs are typically at a premium but that’s exactly what we saw this morning in the 15U Finals.
Sharks Baseball Academy came out of the gate firing, scoring six runs in the top of the second inning. They got the scoring going on an RBI single by Patrick Murnane followed by a wild pitch. Nathaniel Yee extended the lead to 3-0 with an RBI single to center field. James Cummins hit an infield single with the bases loaded to make it 4-0. A hit by pitch of John Dunn followed by a bases loaded walk of Ethan Pineda made it 6-0.
At that point, even the most ardent fan had to question whether they would be able to overcome that deficit but the Head Coach and Assistant Coach were confident all along, knowing they had their ace, Sadier Vicioso available if they were able to make the game close.
The hard-throwing southpaw is a sophomore in high school at Copiague and had just pitched an inning the day before against a college team so he was unable to start but he was available for a couple innings of relief.
It worked out just as planned.
The offense chipped away beginning with three runs in the bottom of the second on a bases loaded walk to Justin Mott followed by an RBI single to Christian Pellegrino.
In the top of the fourth, trailing by three runs they went to Vicioso. Their ace did his job, pitching a hitless inning.
His offense went down 1-2-3 in the fourth but they remained within striking distance. In the bottom of the fifth, a leadoff error and a walk brought the tying run to the plate. What ensued is coined a ‘Little League Home Run’ as Patrick Reyes walked with ball four going to the back stop. He continued to sprint towards second as the throw by the catcher went into center field allowing him to attempt to take third. The throw from center field went down the line and allowed him to score the game-tying run.
In the meantime, Vicioso continued to do his job setting down the side in order in the sixth inning.
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In the home half of the sixth, a one-out walk followed by a single brought up Vinny Giambona. A chopper to the mound meant a throw to third for the pitcher but the errant throw went down the line and allowed the go-ahead run to score.
The seventh inning featured a two-out walk as Vicioso emptied the tank but he worked around it to induce a ground out to third to end the ball game.
