by Andrew Connors
Coach Tomasello talks with us about how proud he is in his team and their ability to fight all season long for the championship. pic.twitter.com/65p8r3MKsC
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) November 8, 2020
The sun was shining bright and the Black Diamonds and the Storm were ready to give it all they had for the 11u championship game on Sunday afternoon. Anyone in attendance for this championship game was in for a real treat, as it was a back-and-forth battle throughout the entirety of the game.
Brian Bower started the game on the mound for the Black Diamonds and he put in a very strong performance, giving his team a complete game. Through his 7 innings of work, Bower struck out four Storm batters and walked four as well. His defense played a good game behind him, which helped limit the amount of runs the Storm scored off of Bower’s walks. Whenever it looked like Bower was out of energy, he seemed to get a second and even third wind as he just continued to give the Storm lineup problems throughout the game.
The starting pitcher for the Storm was Nolan Fernandez, who put on an impressive display on the mound himself. Fernandez struck out two in the first inning and that trend would continue for the duration of his outing as he finished with 6 strikeouts when he was taken out of the game. Fernandez went 5 strong innings before running out of gas. It was clear that Fernandez was running on fumes since his breaking pitches weren’t moving as much and his fastball seemed to lose a bit of life. The Black Diamonds jumped on this and it was the turning point in the game.
For the Storm, most of their runs were manufactured simply by putting the ball in play and making the Black Diamonds field it and making the right play. Three of their four runs came by way of a runner scoring on an error, but that isn’t a bad thing. They identified the weakness in their opponent and took advantage of it, something only the best of teams can do. The one earned run the Storm scored came off the bat of Connor Donoghue. He knocked in Ryan Solomon on a grounder through the hole between the third baseman and shortstop. As for the unearned runs, a shallow pop fly to left field off the bat of John Hawthorne was dropped, scoring two. The other run was scored by Conor Donoghue after the Black Diamonds botched a first-to-third pickoff play.
Although the Storm jumped out to a commanding 4 run lead early on in the game, the Black Diamonds dug deep and found a way to motivate themselves to get back into the game. From the first pitch, the Black Diamonds looked flat as they walked in and out of the dugout to take the field and get up to the plate. However, it all changed when they saw Fernandez getting tired. The Storm took Fernandez out of the game and put in Stellan Zangari, but it was too late.
The majority of the Black Diamonds’ offense came in the 5th inning, thanks to a pair of singles to start the inning by Nicola Cespe and Ryan Gaffney. With those two on base, Steven Grabowski laid down a sacrifice bunt to push Gaffney and Cespe into scoring position. This sacrifice paid off immediately as Luke Howard, Ben Delanoy and Brian Bower all singled following the bunt bring in one run. With Bower and Delanoy on base, Peter Malone smoked a fastball into the outfield for a game-tying 2-RBI single. This is when the Storm made the switch to Zangari, and he struck out the last batter of the inning.
After a quiet 6th inning, a loud 7th inning was sure to happen. After all, it is the championship game. Ryan Gaffney led off the inning with a walk for the Seminoles and following a couple of passed balls that put him in scoring position, Steven Grabowski came up to bat. With all the pressure on him, Grabowski put the ball in play to the left side and Gaffney tried to take third base. However, the Storm rushed the play and threw the ball beyond the third baseman, allowing Gaffney to sprint home and score the winning run.
In what seemed to be an early blowout by the Storm, the Black Diamonds somehow found it within themselves to claw back run by run and take home the 11u championship. It was a truly great and entertaining championship game, fought hard by both teams. Both the Storm and Black Diamonds deserve credit as all players from both sides left everything they had on the field. However, one team needs to come out victorious and this time it was the Black Diamonds.
