by Aaron Rothschild
It was a great doubleheader between two impressive 15u teams yesterday at Eisenhower Park. The B1 Seminoles Black and the Tri-State Arsenal would play two games featuring some impressive fielding with a lot of balls put in play. The teams would split the double header in what was a matchup of competitive teams, this is how we got there.
The game started with Seminole starter Jake Duchovski pitching to contact and doing a great job with a solid defense behind him. He would fire a scoreless first. In the bottom half of the inning the Seminoles would find some holes and go for five runs in the first inning, highlighted by a two-run single off the bat of Battista. After this Arsenal starter, Artie Green, would settle down.
The score would remain 5-0 until the top of the third when Jack Kreglough would knock in a run on a single. The Seminoles would quickly get a run back and then some in the bottom of the inning with a smattering of singles as well as two sac flies. Including a third RBI for the aforementioned Battista. Green was doing a good job throwing strikes; it was just one of those games where the Seminoles were able to find some grass.
In the top of the fourth Tyler Pilatsky knocked in a run to make it 9-2. The score would remain this way until the top of the 7th.
After receiving two solid innings of relief from Kreglough the Arsenal would start a rally down seven with a couple walks and score two runs. But in the end, Duchovski would bare down and complete the game helping the Seminoles save pitchers for game two. Duchovski was great pitching to contact and trusted the field behind him and they certainly did not let him down.
Seminoles take game one by a score of 9-4. Complete game from pitcher Jake Duchovski. pic.twitter.com/v3wbY9wOnJ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 5, 2022
Game 2:
In game two, the tide would turn however and the Arsenal bats woke up in a big way.
Ralph Imperato would start game two for the Arsenal and he was terrific. The Seminoles would also get a solid starting performance from Quinn and the first inning would be scoreless.
In the top of the second the Seminoles would notch the first run of the game on a sac fly from Battista who was big in both games. Imperato would settle down though and keep it there. Quinn would fire another scoreless frame and it was 1-0 until the bottom of the third when Luke Miller would hit an RBI single.
The Seminoles would retake the lead however in the top of the fourth when they would knock in another on an RBI single, but once again Imperato would limit the damage. In the bottom of the inning, they would get a couple runners on versus Quinn and score a run on another RBI from Pilatsky, this time on a fielder’s choice.
In the top of the 5th, the Seminoles would once again respond on another RBI single off the bat of Fessler. This is all they would get though as Imperato would make a day of getting out of jams.
The bottom of the 5th would be the big inning for the Arsenal as they put together a rally versus the Seminole bullpen. A single by Miller would tie the game and they would continue to add on. Mike Orgera would give them a lead on a single and this would become a trend. 3 more singles would extend the Arsenal lead to 7-3.
In the top of the 6th, the Arsenal would turn to Miller to close the game and he did a great job holding the Seminoles scoreless. The game would end here due to time constraints.
Overall, it was an impressive showing of fundamental baseball and resilience by both sides.
