Dodgers Nation get one back on a balk to score Brendan McCann but Jack Flood ends the inning with a strikeout
End of 6: B1000 2, Dodgers Nation 1 pic.twitter.com/gjdMxPqCLy
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 20, 2020
The first five innings of this game took 58 minutes, as it appeared both teams had a flight to catch. The final two innings dispelled that notion, as the pace slowed significantly. Ultimately, the game ended in a 2-2 tie with Anthony Agosta coming through with a game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the 7th with two outs before the time limit halted this one.
The pitching match up was Jack Flood (Mineola 2021) for B1000 Seminoles and Nick Schimmel (Bethpage 2021) for Dodgers Nation in this one. Both pitchers brought their ‘A’ games. Schimmel worked a 1-2-3 first inning with a strikeout while Flood worked around a two-out single to Michael Bloom (West Babylon 2021) to throw a scoreless first inning.
Nick Farnacci (Hills East 2022) beat out an infield single to first base for B1000’s first base runner in the second inning but Schimmel worked around that as well.
The first real threat of the ballgame was in the top of the fourth when Garrett Herman drew a one-out walk and moved to second when an errant throw on an attempted pick off allowed him to move into scoring position. The next batter, Andrew Bonanno (Wantagh 2022) hit a comebacker to the mound. Herman attempted to advance to third but Schimmel made a great play to throw him out for the second out of the inning. It proved to be a critical play when Siddharth Mantravadi ripped a double to left field. Bonanno was held up at third as they did not want to end the rally on a play at the plate, but it wound up being null and void as the next batter, Ryan Plocker (Hills East 2022) was retired.
The game took a turn in the top of the sixth inning when Blake Jefremow (Francis Lewis 2021) drew a walk to open up the inning. After a strikeout, R.J. Canestro (Wantagh 2021) walked to move Jefremow into scoring position. A hit by pitch of Garrett Hermann loaded up the bases and it also was the end of the day for Schimmel, who gave way to Connor Burns. He did his job, inducing a ground ball but Bonanno hustled down the line and beat out the throw to first. It not only avoided the double play and got B1000 on the board, but it also brought up the dangerous Mantravadi. He was able to capitalize on it, lining an RBI single to left field to make it 2-1.
In the bottom of the sixth, Flood retired the first two batters, but a two-out triple by Brendan McCann (Kellenberg 2022) made things dicey. Connor Burns drew a walk to put the tying run on base. Flood balked to bring in the Dodgers first run and put the tying run in scoring position. He was able to escape the jam with a strikeout of Bloom.
In the top of the 7th, B1000 was looking to get that run back off reliever Anthony Agosta. He allowed a one-out single and a walk, but just when it appeared the Seminoles would capitalize, he came through and made the big pitches to escape the jam with back-to-back strikeouts.
In the bottom of the 7th, Flood went back out looking for the complete game but it wasn’t meant to be. After a one-out double by Nick Giardino (Clarke 2022) he was taken out in favor of Andrew Bonanno. The right allowed a single to Chris Downes but struck out Victor Guidotti to get one out away. Agosta stepped into the box looking to avoid making the third out. A double steal even put the potential winning run in scoring position. He smoked a line drive that was nearly caught by the third baseman but it trickled out of his glove – allowing the tying run to score. While it is possible that it could’ve been caught, it was hit hard enough that it wasn’t a given and he actually made a nice play to prevent the winning run from scoring. The next batter was retired to end the game in a 2-2 tie.
The first game of the double header was a final of 2-1 in favor of B1000.
