by Nicholas Cipolla
Will Irwin makes it 2-1 team Francisco with a 2 out double to center pic.twitter.com/ZTw5VNkMKW
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) November 7, 2021
Team Francisco and LIB quite literally played until the sun set on the 2021 season.
Team Francisco took home the fall season championship in a 3-1 victory in 6 innings as they had to battle not just LIB, but also the fading sunlight as daylight savings time began today.
This meant that the sunset today was at approximately 4:40 and this game (slated for 1:30) was pushed back to a 2:57 pm first pitch due to a semi-final game concluding on the site of the championship game.
Despite this, we still had a game to be played, and a champion to be crowned.
LIB drew first blood in the first inning on a first and third double steal where Sean Leonard scored from third when the catcher threw through to try and get the runner going to second. This gave LIB an early 1-0 lead.
Fortunately for Team Francisco, this was the only lead LIB would have all game. Team Francisco capitalized on a few mistakes early by LIB to load the bases, bringing Tyler Lynch to the plate. Lynch hit a ground ball that the second baseman fumbled when he tried to get the ball off the dirt, making everyone safe and making it a 1-1 game.
The game remained tied up for a few innings with great pitching performances on both sides. Joey Tagliavia and Kyle Brindisi both had 7 strikeouts each and pitched well enough to win the game. Unfortunately, someone had to lose this one.
With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Will Irwin stepped up with a runner in scoring position and as the daylight began to disappear. Irwin launched a ball deep into center that gave him an RBI double, but more importantly put Team Francisco up 2-1 in a late stage of the game.
Irwin would score shortly after getting to second when the shortstop for LIB made a costly throwing error on a routine ground ball to give Team Francisco a 3-1 lead.
Joey Tagliavia came back out for the top of the 5th and worked into and out of trouble, keeping the score at 3-1.
This is where things got interesting with the daylight as the ball was barely visible at this point and the umpire made both teams come out for the bottom of the 5th and top of the 6th inning. A move a few spectators were very intrigued with because of the circumstances of the game and in the event of a tie game, what would occur.
However, all that doubt was erased as Team Francisco got three outs in the top of the 6th to erase any crazy conspiracies from being developed as they claimed victory with a 3-1 win.
A crazy way to end a year full of baseball, the countdown to the first game of the 2022 season is now officially on for almost everyone on Long Island!
