by Chris Donnelly
Mid 1: Storm come out swinging and score 4
4-0 Storm pic.twitter.com/r28c5bt2j8— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 10, 2023
In a 12u East Coast fall league matchup between Long Island Storm Blue and Merrick Mayhem, the Storm were firing on all cylinders. After the first game of the double header where the Mayhem edged out a 7-6 ending the Storm’s rally in the final inning where they scored 4 and had the winning run-on base, the Storm continued where they left off in game 2.
The Storm started the top of the first with a leadoff single and a stolen base giving Jack Foley an RBI chance. Foley did not miss it smoking a fly ball to the fence for an RBI triple and start the scoring for the Storm. Emil Ramirez would bring in Foley on a fielder’s choice giving the Storm a 2-0 lead. A single from JD Scianaslo would give the Storm another RBI chance and the Storm would cash in scoring 2 more and making their lead 4-0 after the top of the 1st.
Lukas Hamilton got the start for the Storm, and he was almost perfect. Hamilton worked a 1-2-3 inning in the first and kept the momentum in favor of the Storm. Noah Winiarsky was the starting pitcher for the Mayhem and settled down in the 2nd matching Hamilton with a 1-2-3 inning of his own. In the bottom of the 2nd the Storm showed out on defense. After a leadoff walk the runner attempted to steal 2nd where he was thrown out by a nice throw from Mike Pietrowski. That wasn’t all as a 1-out walk set up the chance for a double play. Hamilton got a ground ball to set up a 4-6-3 double play and end the inning and keeping the game at 4-0.
Mid 3: Storm add another
5-0 Storm pic.twitter.com/p7F8YpiCx9— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 10, 2023
The Storm started off slow in the 3rd with back-to-back strikeouts but a double from Ramirez gave them a chance to push more runs across. They did just that as Scianaslo hit a hard ground ball that ate up the shortstop and rolled into center field scoring Ramirez extending their lead to 5-0 after the top of the 3rd. Hamilton stayed in control still not surrendering a hit through 3 innings.
The top of the 4th ended up being the last half inning played as the rest of the game was rained out but the Storm wasn’t phased as they scored 2 more off 2 RBI doubles from Conroy Miller and Antonio Impennato extending their lead to 7-0 where that would be the final score as the Merrick Mayhem and Long Island Storm Blue would split the double header.
