by Nick Cipolla
Postgame interview with Ryan Knieriemen after he threw a complete game shutout in tonight’s championship game. pic.twitter.com/cxY3IKtReo
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2022
Ryan Knieriemen was a man on a mission last night against MVP Beast in the 17/18u Blue Chip Fathers Day Championship Game against MVP Beast.
Knieriemen wasn’t necessarily blowing guys away with his fastball, but his great mix of his curveball, slider, fastball and attacking the strike zone early and often made him hard to figure out in this contest against an MVP Beast team that was hitting well all tournament.
When MVP Beast did put runners on, they had a hard time capitalizing on it as Knieriemen picked off two runners from first base in first and third situations during this contest and both times it proved to be costly for MVP Beast. Instead of having a man on third with one out, they would end up in a two out situation with a runner in scoring position, making it harder to get that man in.
Offensively for the Titans, the majority of their runs scored came on two separate RBI singles from Jack Costello. The first one came in the top of the 3rd inning with two outs when he fought off a tough pitch into right field for a base hit to give the Titans a 1-0 lead. Costello came up in the 5th with bases loaded and one out, he once again singled to right to make it 2-0 Titans.
Final. LI Titans: 3 MVP Beast: 0
Ryan Knieriemen goes the distance for the Titans in today’s game pic.twitter.com/Uo3u05n5rt
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2022
Tristan Gatchalian made it 3-0 Titans with a sacrifice fly to deep left field in the 5th inning to conclude the scoring in this one.
MVP Beast didn’t go down without a fight as they did have bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 7th. Ryan Knieriemen prevented MVP Beast from scoring as he got a strikeout for out number two and a weak groundout to first base to end the game and complete the shutout victory in the final hour of Father’s Day.
