by Gabe Zoda
Final play of the game was a pop out to seal it for the West Islip Lions. They Won 10-5 and won the 11u Spring Invitational. Congrats! pic.twitter.com/QjzhtgkbVG
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 11, 2022
No matter what level you play at, there’s nothing like being in the championship game. The same can be said in the Spring Invitational game between the West Islip Lions and the West Warriors. This game was back-and-forth throughout the entire matchup until the Lions pushed away late to take a 10-4 victory in the 7 inning game.
The big philosophy from both sides was to work walks and get on base and then try to steal bags to get in positions to score. That recurring theme started all the way in the top of the first where the West Islip Lions scored their first 2 runs. The inning started with a bunt single from Nick Mallen, he would then steal a couple bases to get onto 3rd and then read a wild pitch pretty early to score. Luke Northorn then walked, stole 2nd and 3rd and he would come in to score on another wild pitch. On both sides, there was really good base running throughout.
That early blow didn’t get the West Warriors down as they were high spirited the entire game and always had a comeback mentality, the bottom of the 1st was no different. They started the game off with 3 consecutive walks by Joey Kirch, Luke Aguiar Modey and Ryan Tjersland. Joey Kirch would come in to score on a wild pitch. The other 2 runs would come in both on an error on the field on a Nathan Ocampo hot shot to 2nd. That scored Luke and Ryan to give the west warriors a 3-2 lead.
After that explosive start from both teams, the bats cooled off a little bit as the sky fell into darkness at Otsego Park in Dix Hills. The next scoring inning was the 4th but an amazing job by Ryan Tjersland for the West Warriors and Patrick Dolan and Joe Lella for the West Islip Lions for putting up 0’s in the 2nd and 3rd innings.
It seemed like the Lions were just recharging and getting ready for a comeback as they retook the lead in the top of the 4th inning with 2 runs to make it a 4-3 ballgame. This inning started off with a couple of walks to Joe Lella and Luke Northorn. They would both steal to get themselves in scoring position. Joe would come into score after capitalizing on a passed ball. That allowed Luke to go to 3rd base. Once he got there it was up to Matthew Piropato to bring him in, and he delivered a big blast to right field that ended up being a triple and scored Luke Northorn to make it a 4-3 ballgame.
But once again the West Warriors were not in the business of giving up and they would respond with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Luke Aguiar Modey started things off with a walk and then stole all away to 3rd since they had the pitcher timed up perfectly. Once on 3rd, Nathan Ocampo did his job perfectly by just lifting a ball in the air for a sac fly to tie things up at 4.
Back and forth we go, in the top of the 5th, the West Islip Lions take the lead back on a Brayden DiBenedetto infield single. They then scored one more run on an Eddie O’Brien grounder. Score is now 6-4 in favor of the West Islip Lions in the middle of the 5th Inning. pic.twitter.com/o9vcozIjNR
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 11, 2022
The West Islip lions realized that if they wanted to win the championship, they would need to put their foot on the gas and take it up a notch because the West Warriors were not giving up. In the 5th inning they would start to pull away and put up 2 runs that gave them a 6-4 lead. Mikey Montemarano led off the inning with a single through the 5-6 hole, then stole a couple of bags and waited for Brayden DiBenedetto to bring him in on an infield single. Right after that, since Joe Joe Doherty was on 3rd after the singe (he got on with a walk of his own and a stolen bag), Eddie O’Brien was able to hit an RBI on a well placed grounder that gave the west warriors no chance of getting the out at the plate.
The Lions wouldn’t be done there because they brought in Ben Posner in the 6th inning and he came in to really shut the door, in his 2 innings of work he struck out 5 players. The offense backed him up with 4 more runs in the 6th and 7th innings to make it a 10-4 game. These runs in the 6th came in from a couple of RBI singles from Luke Northorn and Matthew Piropato. Those singles would score NIck Mallen and Joe Lella who both reached on a single and walk respectively. Northorn would then score on a passed ball. The 7th was more of the same for the Lions as Joe Joe DOherty got himself on with a 1B, stole a couple of bags and then used a wild pitch to get himself in as well.
In the bottom of the 7th, the no quit Warriors put up a run on an RBI single from Nolan Wenzel (Ryan Tjersland came in to score after reaching on a dropped 3rd strike). It was a little too much, too late though as they couldn’t plate any more runs in the inning and the West Islip Lions were able to take the 11u Southern Invitational Championship. Ben Posner once again shut the door and was stellar in keeping the Warriors off the scoreboard while the offense from the whole team really catapulted them off into victory. Whenever you can take home a championship, there is no better feeling whether its in 11u or in the MLB and doing it with their best friends was the best part of their experience.
