Editor’s Note: Twin Orchards Defeated Fire Department by a score of 4-1 to take the NHLL Championship on Thursday…Congrats Guys!
New Hartford – A regulation Little League Baseball game is six innings in length. A big, no, giant inning, will usually go along way toward the final result. That notion held true on a windy, dusty, sun drenched Wednesday evening in New Hartford, sort of.
The final two contestants alive for the New Hartford Little League Championship Trophy, Fire Department and Twin Orchards, hooked up for game two of the best of three series and things couldn’t have started off any better for Twin Orchards, who dropped the series opener to NHFD on Tuesday, by a score of 13-2.
The kids clad in apple, not fire engine red plated eight runs in the top of the first (before making an out) and would head to the bottom of the first with an 11-0 lead. The big blow (notice I didn’t say knockout blow) came on a three run homer from the big fella, Jake Korycinski.
He’s gonna need a bigger bat…Jake Korycinski (14) swats his 2nd homer of the evening. (Photo By Jeff Pexton – Perfect Game Imaging)
A lot of teams would have viewed an 11 run deficit as insurmountable, just play out the 4 innings, take the mercy rule loss and move on to Thursday for a winner take all title game. Well, if that was Fire Department’s plan, they took the long way home and they pushed defending champion Twin Orichards to the brink in the process. I doubt that was the plan. Not this team, not these kids.
Fire Department got a gutsy relief pitching performance from one of their youngest players, Rowan Gall, who also delivered a long triple in the firemen’s 6 run – 4th inning, and nearly snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. Almost.
When the dust storms (which were stirred up in part by the 53 total batters that reached base) ended, Twin Orchards prevailed by a score of 23-15, forcing that winner take all game on Thursday. The game will also feature a matchup of two of the league’s top pitchers, Roman Kimball, who finished off the win for Twin Orchards with a command performance on Wednesday and William Gall, who played several positions for Fire Department the same night.
Captain of the Cardiac Kids – Rowan Gall (6) helped Fire Department on both sides of the ball on Wednesday. (Photo By – Jeff Pexton – Perfect Game Imaging)
The numbers on game two are simply mind boggling. Sure, 38 runs in a six inning Little League game is pretty impressive and if nearly three hours of game time wasn’t enough to garner attention, how about the fact that the two teams combined to send 8 pitchers to the mound to get through this one? Or, the fact that by the by the bottom of the 4th inning, Twin Orchards’ somewhat overwhelming 11-0 advantage had been turned into a 15-13 lead by Fire Department? Rocco Macera’s leadoff dinger got the firemen going in that big 4th inning. Then Twin Orchards plated 10 runs over the course of the 5th and 6th innings for the “come from behind” victory? Come on, really?
Roman Kimball (2) delivers a 6th inning fire ball to help turn back the talented firemen. (Photo By Jeff Pexton – Perfect Game Imaging)
Twin Orchards’ strategy of holding back their top pitcher when they jumped out to the early 11 run lead almost back fired, Almost. the kings of cider and all things apples got not one, but two, huge home runs from their big 1st baseman Jake Korycinski, the last of which came in Twin Orchards 6 run sixth inning that put the game away.
Roman Kimball, who had 20 pitches (+the last batter started before that limit) to work with in order to be eligible to pitch in a potential game three, was masterful, using just 22 tosses to shut the door on the potent Fire Department bats over the final couple of innings. Nate Winn would get the final two outs for the Orchards, who now live to play another day.
Congratulations to both clubs’ players and coaches on an exciting game two and best of luck for an equally exciting (if that’s possible) game three on Thursday!
1 2 3 4 5 6 R
Twin Orchards 11 0 2 0 4 6 23
NHFD 4 5 0 6 0 0 15
