by John Sullivan
Final: Brady Hunt closes it down and the Longhorns win it 8-5 pic.twitter.com/clenUpHBip
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 18, 2024
The 13u Boys of Summer matchup at Holy Trinity on Tuesday night was a highly anticipated one, as two of the best teams in the league matched up. B1 Ghost Diaz Gold entered the game with a 4-1 record and a run differential of 29-8. NY Longhorns Maisano entered play with a 3-1 record and a run differential of 24-6.
B1 sent Giancarlo Cantorno to the mound, who immediately put Longhorn lead off batter, Brian Kalinowski, on with a walk. Cantorno got the next batter to ground into a fielder’s choice for the first out, but an E6 put Brady Hunt on and made it first and second for the Longhorns. Joey Moy then ripped a line drive into center field, but B1 center fielder, Andrew Torre, came up with a great throw to third for the force out. The next batter, Jack Laduca also hit a hard line drive, but unfortunately for him, it was right at the left fielder for the final out of the top of the first. In the bottom of the first, Joey Moy took the hill for the Longhorns and he wasted no time by striking the first batter he faced. He followed this by hitting the two batter and walking the three batter though, which set him up in a tough first and second situation. Moy was able to bare down and induce a weak grounder for a fielder’s choice, but another walk loaded the bases for B1 with two outs. With two outs, Moy made a great pitch and got in on the hands of Joey Meyer, which resulted in a groundout to second and the final out of the first.
End of 3: B1 has a big 3 run inning, with 1 coming in this RBI single that Jack Yonkman ripped into center field. The other runs were scored on a squeeze bunt and a wild pitch. B1 leads it 4-1 pic.twitter.com/vP2XLfT4Qr
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 18, 2024
The Longhorns started off the second in a big way, with a double from Marco Moscheni and a hit by pitch from Andrew Erato. After Liam Byrne’s perfectly executed sac bunt, Andrew Maisano came to the plate and ripped a line drive, but unfortunately, it was right at the third baseman for the second out. Contorno struck the next batter out and he successfully escaped a jam for the second consecutive inning to keep things scoreless. It wouldn’t stay scoreless for long though, thanks to Jake D’Amico and Peter Schede of B1 Ghost. D’Amico hit a one out single into left and advanced to second on an E7. With two outs, Peter Schede came up clutch and drove a fastball over the second baseman’s head for a single to give B1 a 1-0 lead heading into the third.
Now done by 1 run, the Longhorn offense got to work in the third. Brian Kalinowksi started things off with a one out single and Cole Paulsen and Brady Hunt followed with walks to load the bases with 1 out. Joey Moy then did his job by putting a ball in play for an RBI fielder’s choice on a ground ball. Contorno was able to get the next guy looking on a nasty curveball to keep the game tied at 1. Similar to the Longhorns, B1 also got straight to work on offense in their half of the third. Sam Vargas led off with a walk and steals of second and third, but Moy induced a popup to first against the second batter of the inning. After Freddy Ulmschneider worked a walk, Brayden O’Toole laid down a beautiful squeeze bunt and ended up beating it out for both an RBI and bunt single. Joseph Meyer then ripped a single into right field to load up the bases for Jack Yonkman, who came up big with a very hard line drive into center for a single and an RBI. After a popup on a failed squeeze attempt, Joseph Meyer scored a two out run on a wild pitch to extend B1’s lead to 4-1 heading into the fourth.
The top of the fourth felt like deja vu from the second after Marco Moscheni hit another lead off double and Andrew Erato was hit once again. Liam Byrne didn’t bunt this time around though,instead he worked a great at bat for a walk against Sam Vargas in his first at bat in relief of Contorno. The next batter, Andrew Maisano came through with a blooper to left that dropped and allowed Moscheni to score, but Erato was thrown out at third on the play for the first out. Vargas got Vincent Bove to ground into a fielder’s choice for the second out, but after he balked, Liam Byrne came in to score for the Longhorns. Vargas stopped the bleeding there, as he made a great pitch to induce a popout against Brian Kalinowski. The Longhorns brought in Brady Hunt out of the bullpen in the bottom of the fourth and it was the smoothest inning yet. Hunt got a weak groundout to first and a backwards K to start the inning and a two out double from Giancarlo Contorno didn’t faze Hunt, as he got the next batter to fly out to center for the third out of the inning.
Cole Paulsen led off the fifth inning with a rocket into right field for a single. Paulsen then stole second and third, which set up Brady Hunt perfectly for an RBI opportunity, who came through with a hard line drive into left field that was misplayed by the left fielder and tied the game up at 4. After Joey Moy’s single to make it first and second, Jack Laduca hit a popup into center field that was dropped. But, because the runners weren’t running, B1 was able to get a force out at third and second for a wild 8-5-4 double play. This settled Vargas down, as he got a huge strikeout on the next batter to end the inning and keep it tied. The bottom of the fifth was another relatively smooth one for Brady Hunt who gave up another two out double after two quick outs, but made a great pitch to get Joey Meyer to roll over to first to head into the final inning all tied up.
Mid 6: Andrew Maisano rips a clutch 2 RBI single into left field and Brady Hunt follows that with a 2 RBI single into left field of his own to give the Longhorns an 8-4 lead. B1 is down to there final three outs due to time limit pic.twitter.com/AWF6vTw4Zw
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 18, 2024
The sixth started with Andrew Erato getting hit for a third time and Liam Byrne reaching base via an E4. With no outs and two on, Andrew Maisano jumped all over a fastball and smoked it into left field. The ball went through the left fielder’s legs, allowing both Erato and Byrne to score for a 6-4 Longhorn lead. After Maisano was caught attempting to steal third, Vincent Bove singled, Brian Kalinowski popped out, and Cole Paulsen was hit to put two runners on with two outs. Brady Hunt came up with a huge two out single that once again went through the left fielders legs and scored two to make it 8-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth.
Post game interview with Brady Hunt of the New York Longhorns, who went three innings on the mound with no earned runs and also reached based 4 times at the plate pic.twitter.com/OxRuK29B7b
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 19, 2024
After Hunt struckout the first batter, Jake D’Amico reached on an E6 and Nick Motsatsos hit a single to give B1 some life. Hunt got the next batter to pop out to himself, but even with two outs, B1 didn’t give up. Peter Schede hit another RBI single to make it 8-5 and Giancarlo Contorno worked an amazing at bat for a walk to put the tying run on first. But, Brady Hunt bared down and got the final out on a fly out to right. Although it was a sloppy game, it is apparent that both of these teams are both very talented and very well coached. It would be no surprise to see both the Longhorns and B1 high up in the standings at the end of the season.
