Poland Community Baseball Association Little League ends season

Photo

Neighbors | Submitted .The Town One Square team includes, from left, (front) Sam Scotford, P.J. Kostalas, Chase Gushura, Ty Gushura, D.J. Skarote; (middle) Brad Perry, Matt Brennan, Collin Todd, Alex Rapp, Daniel Patrick, Andrew Testa; (back) coach John Scotford, manager Eric Rapp and coach Mike Gushura. Not Pictured:Player: Nico Marchionda

The Poland Community Baseball Association Little League Division (11-12 year olds) recently wrapped up its double-elimination, season-ending tournament on June 21 with a scintillating championship game that will go down in PCBA history as one of the best ever contested.

Town One Square, the home team, defeated Focus Contracted Services 8-7 in a game in which the home team never led until the winning run crossed the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning at 11:30 p.m. The championship game was made even more special as Town One Square out of the loser’s bracket defeated Focus Contracted Services out of the winner’s bracket earlier the same night to force the decisive final game.

The game started out as a pitcher’s duel between Daniel Patrick of Town One Square and Stephen Carney of Focus Contracted Services. Both pitchers were on top of their games with Town One Square down 4-2 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. Daniel Patrick singled to lead off the bottom half of the inning which was followed up by a walk to Collin Todd. Patrick scored on a passed ball. Carney struck out two Town One Square batters to record two outs, but Carney reached his maximum pitch count for a day and J.P.Allsopp came in to face Ty Geshura. Todd, on some crafty base running, scored on a passed ball. The game went to extra innings with the score knotted 4-4.

The top half of the inning saw a pitching change after two outs as Town One Square’s pitcher, Daniel Patrick, had exhausted his pitch count for a day. Manager, Eric Rapp, handed the ball to Sam Scotford to keep the Focus batters in check. After giving up a two-out double to Ian Lu, Scotford induced a ground out from Alex Diianni.

The bottom half of the seventh inning saw Scotford hit a one-out triple down the right field line. Town One Square looked set to capture the crown. The Focus Contracted Services’ Manager, Jim McCurdy, instructed his pitcher to throw two intentional walks to load the bases. Patrick hit a sharp grounder to the shortstop, Alex Barth, who fielded it cleanly and threw out Scotford at home plate. Todd lined a hard shot to left field which was caught by Carney on his knees to end the inning.

The eighth inning saw both teams competing hard, but no runs were scored.

The top half of the ninth inning saw Mason McCurdy and Carney score on triple by Barth. The Town One Square Manager had Scotford issue two intentional walks to load the bases. Scotford induced two grounders with runners thrown out at home and a fly ball to end the inning.

The bottom half of the ninth inning saw Town One Square down to its final at bat after the first two batters recorded outs. Patrick laced a double to left-center field on a 2-2 count. Patrick scored on a first pitch double by Todd. Brad Perry hit a slow grounder to third base that allowed Todd to score.

Lucas Diianni led off the top half of the 10th inning with a triple and scored on a single by Carney. Barth was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second base. Lu chopped a grounder back to Scotford who tried to throw out Carney at third base. The throw was high to Matt Brennan, but Brennan tagged out Carney after he strayed off third base.

The bottom half of the 10th inning saw the first two Town One Square batters reach base. Alex Rapp hit a sacrifice fly to right field that allowed Brennan to reach third base. Andrew Testa came to the plate to face Allsopp. Scotford moved to second base on the first pitch. Testa doubled to left-center field which scored Brennan and Scotford.

The final score was Town One Square-8 and Focus Contracted Services-7.