by James Ryder
Final Score: 11-2 Storm. Here is Coach Sal and winning pitcher Stellan Zangari on the big win today (Reminder – Watch Out for those victory water showers!): pic.twitter.com/zXUwIil7yK
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 26, 2019
The 11u Championship game at Plainedge Park Saturday morning was a one-sided affair from the start. The Long Island Storm appropriately stormed out of the gate and dominated all game long. Four runs in the bottom of the first and second inning combined with great starting pitching led to LI’s dominant win over the Kings Park Pride 11-2.
The Storm set the stage for their offensive tear when Casey Coco and Ryan Soloma hit back-to-back leadoff singles. After both runners advanced on stolen bases, Nolan Fernandez hit a hard ball to third for an infield single to score the games first run. This was followed three straight runs, two of which came on errors. A pop up that was dropped by the center fielder to allowed one run while the other came when home plate was stolen on a wild pitch. Lastly, a single from Colin Levine put LI up 4-0.
They picked up where they left off in the bottom of the second by once again having the first two batters reach base. Kelly Hyland reached on catcher’s interference and Coco went to first again after being hit by a pitch. Soloma came back to the plate and cracked one to deep right-center field for a 2 RBI triple to expand the lead to 6-0. He then scored again on a dropped fly ball to CF hit by Fernandez. Another wild pitch allowed Fernandez to move to third before Stellan Zangari drove him in on an RBI single to make it 8-0.
Speaking of Zangari, he got the start for LI on the mound. Stellan was stellar, throwing all five innings and finishing with 8 K’s and only 3 walks and 2 runs allowed. The lone two runs Kings Park scored came on a 2 RBI single to RF by Aidan Kehue in the top of the fourth.
In the following frame, LI pushed their lead to 9-2 on another RBI single from Levine. After a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fifth for Zangari, the Storm had the chance to force mercy rule and end the game. This came to fruition when Coco hit a 2 RBI double to end the game.
The LI Storm wreaked havoc on both sides of the ball to win the championship. They celebrated the final hit by storming the field, where a Gatorade shower ensued on the mound for Coco. Evan Zangari got a shower while discussing his performance during the postgame interview. It was that kind of exciting Championship experience for this team and a fun way to finish off the Baseball season. Final Score: LI 11, Kings Park 2.
