Final: Batting 1.000 wins 1-0. Jaiden Zoller (complete game shutout, 8 Ks, RBI) did it all for his team today, but gave the credit to his teammates: pic.twitter.com/yESewq3yVd
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 15, 2020
by James Ryder
The 11u Batting 1.000 Seminoles faced the Farmingdale Greendogs at Allen Park on Saturday morning. The game only lasted a total of one hour. This was thanks to the dominance of both teams starting pitchers and the defenses behind them. Farmingdale’s Brendan LoFaro had a solid start, giving up six hits but only one run. The lone run of the game came from Seminoles SP Braden Seligman’s RBI single. Zoller also pitched all six innings, finishing with 8 strikeouts and a complete game shutout to lead his team to the 1-0 win.
Although it was Zoller who helped his own cause, this is not to say that the rest of Batting 1.000 played a poor game. Zoller just had that powerful of an impact on the end result. Impactful too was the defense of Batting 1.000. Zoller only gave up two hits, but this was in part due to some great fundamentals all over the diamond from the Seminoles. The Greendogs were constantly forced into ground outs, which always resulted in an agile advancement towards the ball and an accurate throw to first base.
The Greendogs also had their fair share of nice defensive plays. In fact, they flashed the leather a couple of times by producing some super impressive. Farmingdale third baseman Ive Mills back handed a sharp ground ball on one knee and completed the long throw to first base to record an out in the fifth inning. There was also a pair of great sliding catches in the outfield. The first was made by center fielder Christopher Parisi in the bottom of the third. He charged a ball blooped into shallow CF and made the sliding catch with his arm fully extended in front of him. Later on in the fourth, Greendogs left fielder Dylan Mingo chased after fly ball and made the catch on the third base line.
Back now to the Seminoles run. Zoller’s RBI single to right field allowed Matt Muzikant, who reached on a single to LF, to go for the plate having started out at second base. The throw home was wide, but the catcher still had a chance to tag out Muzikant. He managed to dodge the tag and beat the catcher to home, diving on the plate to touch it with his right hand. The first base umpire had called him out on the initial tag attempt, but both umpires talked and overturned the call, giving the Seminoles their permanent 1-0 lead.
Some great pitching and defense was seen on both sides, but Zoller and the Seminoles got the better of LoFaro and the Greendogs. Final Score: Batting 1.000 1, Farmingdale 0.
