by Ethan Marshall
Dylan Santucci on his 350+ foot homer: pic.twitter.com/eC0CRqsed3
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 31, 2020
Team Francisco, led by Jaden Grose on the mound and Isaiah Marino and Dylan Santucci, among others, dominated en route to a 9-1 victory in five innings.
Marino went 2-3 with a triple and inside-the-park homer and Grose tossed a complete game, striking out seven and allowing just one run on six hits. Perhaps the biggest play of the game came courtesy of Team Francisco’s cleanup hitter, Dylan Santucci in the third inning, when he blasted a solo homer over the fence in left field and beyond the fence of the neighboring field. The ball likely traveled more than 350 feet.
After the game, Santucci jokingly guessed the ball traveled an estimated distance of 450 feet. He felt confident going into the game that he could hit one over that left field fence. “I knew I was going to hit one out today,” Santucci said.
A big part that contributed to Grose’s success on the mound during the game was his ability to mix his fastball and curveball effectively. Opposing hitters looked very off-balance against him the first time through the order, as Grose kept painting the corners with his fastball to get ahead before either blowing them away or getting them to chase. While he finally allowed some hard contact in the final inning, Grose felt he still had plenty left in the tank. “I definitely could’ve definitely gone a few more innings,” Grose said excitedly.
Team Francisco scored their first five runs in the first inning of the game. Marino led off the game with a triple to deep center before coming home on a RBI single by Adrian Tavarez. After the next batter was retired, Santucci belted a RBI double to deep center. Allen Watson followed with a walk before both runners advanced on a wild pitch. John-Albert Franco hit a grounder to third to bring the run in and ended up reaching first safely when the first baseman couldn’t cleanly handle the low throw. After Franco stole second, Tyler Koenis drove home Watson and Franco on a RBI single.
The Team Francisco offense got off to another quick start in the second inning. Connor Sheridan drew a leadoff walk before Marino took a ball the other way for a two-run, inside-the-park home run. Later in the inning, Santucci hit his mammoth shot to make it 9-0.
After going just 2-10 the first time through the order, LIB made some adjustments Grose. The team’s best contact came courtesy of an Angelo Forthofor triple followed by a RBI double from Judiel Rivera to begin the bottom of the fifth. However, Grose was able to bear down and retire the next three LIB batters to end the game.
