by Gabe Zoda
Talked to the winning battery from game 2 on their win. pic.twitter.com/g2FtQN4A0W
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 16, 2022
Eisenhower was the home for an under the lights double header between the B1000 Seminoles Fio and Freedom Baseball in boys of summer 14u action. These two games were completely different from each other and saw both squads win one game. The first game was won by B1000 Seminoles by a score of 7-2 while the second was won by Freedom Baseball by a score of 4-1.
The action got started right out of the gates in game one with 2 runs by the Seminoles. JoJo Mckillop got a one out base hit. He would then steal 2nd to put himself in scoring position. That was followed by 2 walks by Tim Pendergast and Matthew Judge to load up the bases for Cole Zuckerman. Zuckerman brought in the game’s first run with a sac fly to center. After the sac fly, Joe Arlia walked to load up the bases again and Brendan Mcintyre would follow him up with a walk of his own to score in the second run. The Seminoles would lead 2-0 after the 1st inning and it wouldn’t be until the 3rd inning when they really broke out.
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In the top of the 3rd inning, the score was locked at 2-0 in favor of the Seminoles. They had a different energy in that inning, as if they knew they were about to break this game wide open. In the top of the 3rd, the Seminoles would pour in 4 runs and increase their lead to 6-0. It all started with an RBI double by Tim Pendergast, he blasted one down the 1st base line to score JoJo Mckillop (who reached on an error). After that, Cole Zuckerman would get his 2nd and 3rd RBI’s of the game with a long single that was sent over the CF’s head. After his single, he would move to 2nd on a stolen base and move to 3rd on a Fielder’s Choice. Once at 3rd, he would come in to score after a throwing error on an attempted pickoff.
What also needs to be mentioned in this game was the pitching performance of Matthew Judge for the Seminoles. In this game he would pitch 4 innings and only got into trouble in the 4th inning when he would eventually give up 2 runs (Only 1 earned). He kept his team ahead in the game and continuously pumped strikes to accumulate 4ks and relied on his defense to make plays for him.
As mentioned, In the 4th inning, Freedom Baseball would get on the board with 2 runs to cut the lead to 6-2. Samir Rahamen would bring in the first run of their game with a hard hit ground ball to plate one and move the runners over. Immediately after that RBI came Parker Elward, who would bloop in a single to shallow right field to score Quentin Staudt (who reached on a single).
The Seminoles weren’t going to allow to Freedom Baseball to come back in this one, they put on some always welcomed insurance in the top of the 5th with an RBI single by Matthew Judge to make the score 7-2 and then they deployed their closer, Joe Arlia, in the bottom of the 5th to close the door.
Game 2 was a complete flip of the script though, Freedom Baseball was not going to leave without at least one win and they played with that determined look on their faces the entire game.
The first proof of this was the top of the 1st inning where Freedom got on the scoreboard first. Will Donahy led off the game with a single back up the middle. Donahy then moved to 2nd with a stolen base. This set the stage for Mason Ruocco, who blasted a ball to left center field that would score Will Donahy easily. That put Freedom up 1-0 and that score would hold all the way until the 4th inning where Freedom would tack on another one.
The big reason why Freedom were able to keep the Seminoles offense so quiet was because of their “ace” Samir Rahamen. He battled the entire game and got out of jams in the first 3 innings and never broke once. He kept throwing strikes and produced nothing but weak contact to allow his fielders to get easy outs. He would end up pitching 4 innings of no run baseball, he also struck out 4 in the process.
In the top of the 4th inning, Mason Ruocco would lead things off with a walk. He would later come around to score in the inning because of a Quentin Staudt grounder that gave Ruocco enough time to come in to score and increase Freedom’s lead to 2-0.
Griffin Tucker would come into relief in the bottom of the 5th inning for Freedom Baseball and kept the Seminoles from scoring.
In the top of the 6th inning, Freedom Baseball would take a page out of the Seminoles book from game 1 and added to their lead in the final inning to really seal the game. In the 6th, Brandan Cnollo would get on with a 2 out walk. He then stole 2nd and 3rd to get in a perfect position to capitalize on a passed ball to make it a 3-0 game. The pitch that allowed Cnollo to score was also ball four to Quentin Staudt. Staudt would then steal a couple of bags to end up on 3rd. Matthew Colavita would provide the final insurance run that Freedom Baseball would need with a single right through the 5-6 hole to score Quentin and give Freedom a 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the 6th, the Seminoles would score on a Cole Zuckerman RBI (his 4th RBI on the day) but it wasn’t enough as Freedom Baseball would end up taking game 2 by a final score of 4-1.
