by Chris Donnelly
FINAL: Long Island Crew 4, Tri State Arsenal NY National 0 pic.twitter.com/uT75bYoWAq
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 17, 2023
In a 16u Boys of Summer National semifinals matchup between Long Island Crew and Tri State Arsenal NY to decide who advances to the finals, the Crew got ahead early and never looked back. It was a pitchers’ duel between the two teams as there were only four runs scored between both teams.
Arsenal sent Tyler Pilatski to the mound, and he got into some trouble early. Starting the game off with a hit by pitch and a walk gave the Crew an early chance to push runs across. Pilatski came back to get a popout and strikeout almost getting out of the jam. Another hit by pitch loaded the bases with 2 outs for Brady Leichtman and he lined a single to right field scoring 2 runs giving the Crew a 2-0 heading to the bottom half.
For the Crew they would send out Kyle Winter as the starter and he was dominant from beginning to end. After a leadoff single from Raffaele Imperato, Winter struck out the next 2 and on the 2nd strikeout the batter got called for interference on his throw down to 2nd ending the inning.
The 2nd inning started off similar as the leadoff man reached on a walk, but Pilatski was able to work around the walk retiring the next 3 batters in order. Winter continued to be efficient sending Arsenal down in order with a couple of ground outs and a strikeout. The 3rd inning was quiet for both teams as the pitchers Winter and Pilatski had really settled down and got comfortable.
The top of the 4th started off with another leadoff walk who would end up at 2nd after a sac bunt to move him over. Zach Thomas attempting to steal 3rd would score on the play after an error from the catcher would allow Thomas to come in and score adding to the Crews’ lead and making the score 3-0 heading into the bottom of the 4th.
This was all Winter needed as he continued to be efficient getting his 3rd 1-2-3 inning in a row and keeping the momentum in favor of the Crew.
The top of the 6th saw the final run scored after a leadoff single from AJ Giel got sac bunted over to 2nd base to bring up Seamus Smith. Smith ripped a single right field to bring in Giel and make the score 4-0 Crew.
Post game interview with Kyle Winter pic.twitter.com/cYVFHZqDIV
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 17, 2023
With Winter coming back out for the 6th it was looking like he would attempt to come out for the 7th for the complete game and he did just that working through the 6th and 7th inning almost perfectly. Winter fielded the last out and took the ball over to first base himself to secure the win and send the Crew to the playoffs. Winter finished with a complete game shutout, surrendering only 3 hits while striking out 6.
