This is what baseball people commonly refer to as the ‘dog days of summer’. The August afternoon games when the heat index is close to 100 and you are low on energy but the season is not nearly complete yet.
That’s what both the LIB Tides and Tri-State Arsenal were dealing with on Monday afternoon in a Boys of Summer Perfect Game Collegiate League double header. Not a cloud was in the sky but the heat was oppressive. While both teams had to deal with it, it was the LIB Tides who were able to overcome it and come away with the sweep by the scores of 5-0 and 7-3.
Here’s how it went down:
Game 1
It was terrific pitching match up between Tim Mott (Molloy-commit) and Julian Minaya (SUNY Sullivan). Both pitchers wouldn’t give an inch early on, eluding some jams but not allowing anything to cross the plate.
That changed in the bottom of the fifth when LIB got a rally started beginning with an error on a dropped fly ball in left field off the bat of Nick Cavallo. The next two batters were retired and it appeared Mott would escape the inning unscathed but Braylin Marine came through with an RBI single to right field to plate Cavallo and get Minaya a run to work with. They added another run on an RBI single by Harrison Treble to center field to make it 2-0.
Reliever Dan Brown came on in the sixth for LIB and fired a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to get his offense back in the dugout.
In the seventh inning, they broke it open with a three-spot. The rally began with a one-out double by Sal Carricato, which was followed by a walk to Joe Riccardi. The following batter, Nick Cavallo, made it hurt with an RBI single to right field to plate Carricato. Frankie DiMartino walked, which set the stage for Robert Chesney‘s sacrifice fly to make it 4-0. The final run was plated on an E6 off the bat of Braylin Marine.
In the top of the seventh, Brandon O’Brien came on and fired a 1-2-3 inning to slam the door on the victory.
Minaya was the winning pitcher, he went five innings, allowing just one hit, one walk and one HBP against an impressive lineup that featured Steven Sclafani, Jack Stolper, Matt Milone, Anthony Pascale, Jack Greco, Ryan Hynes, Matt Fried, Nick Cergol, Chris Giardino and Sawyer Duarte.
After the game he said his gameplan was to “get it done, get outs,” and added that the climate did not effect him although he prefers not to deal with the wind. Additionally, he stated that he enjoys throwing to catcher Robert Chesney, who threw out an attempted base stealer in the fifth inning to complete a ‘strike-em-out, throw-em-out.’
Game 2
Just like the first game, the pitchers dominated through the first few innings. If you step aside to take a bathroom break you probably missed a full inning with how efficient the pitchers were early on. Frankie Giuliano and Matt Fried was the match up.
In the top of the fourth, LIB broke through. The rally started with two outs and nobody on and it began with a two-out walk to Angelo Alessandro. He advanced to second on an error by the third baseman. A hit by pitch of Anthony Lamar loaded the bases. On the next batter, the catcher attempted a snap throw to third, which got away and allowed two runs to score.
Tri-State Arsenal did rally to tie up the game in the home half of the fourth. A one-out walk to Jack Stolper got things going. After a strikeout of Mott, Matt Milone hit an infield single to get the runner to scoring position. That brought up Anthony Pascale who ripped an RBI single up the middle to score Stolper and get TSA on the board. Max Weinstein followed with an RBI single of his own to tie up the game.
The Arsenal turned to Sawyer Duarte in relief. The hard-throwing righty labored a bit through the inning. With runners on, Anthony Lambroia came through with an RBI single to regain the lead, 3-2. This scored Johnny Guarantano who drew a one-out walk. After Parker Chang popped out to the mound, Alessandro broke the game open with a two-run single to make it 5-2 and Anthony Grigas added another with an RBI single of his own.
TSA got one run back on an RBI single off the bat of Chris Giardino to score Nick Cergol, but that was as close as they’d get. LIB added two more runs in the sixth on an RBI ground out off the bat of Nick Cavallo and another RBI single off the bat of Lambroia.
With the loss, TSA drops to 5-6 while LIB improves to 10-6 on the year.
Following the game, Lambroia mentioned that on both his RBI hits he was down 0-2 so he was just looking for something to put in play. He also did a great job behind the dish in the heat and with the 70 foot backstop, noting that he is used to it after playing on this field many times.
Prior to their Game 1 win, they had also been mired in a four-game losing streak so LIB was glad to turn the tides.
