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Jr. Americans win Renegades Wooden Bat Tourney

By Dylan Butler

Bayside Yankees Junior Americans head coach Joe Kessler knew his team’s trip north of the border for the Renegades Wooden Bat Tournament would be a good precursor to the NABF regionals later this month.

On the trip home from Welland, Ontario, Kessler was all smiles as the Yankees won five straight games after losing the opening game of the tournament to take the crown.

Bayside won the title game in impressive fashion, crushing Team Ontario, which boasted a 50-2 record heading into the tournament, 11-1 in a mercy-rule shortened five innings.

“I knew we had 10 games in five days coming up and I told the starters going into the tournament that I needed them to go the distance,” said Kessler, whose team improved to 25-7-1 overall. “The pitching was more that I could have ever asked for. They showed me I could really depend on these guys.”

The title game, played at Welland Stadium Sunday, was a rematch of a game earlier in the tournament, won by Bayside, 2-1. The Yankees shocked the partisan crowd by scoring three first-inning runs on an RBI single by Matthew Acevedo and a two-run bases loaded single by Rob Yodice.

Bayside tacked on five more runs in the second inning, highlighted by a Michael McKenna’s bases-loaded single that drove in two runs.

The Yankees were also led by Tommy Larkin, who went 3-for-3 with an RBI, and pitcher Brian Franklino, who allowed one run on three hits, striking out four with one walk.

“I thought we’d be in for a real tough fight after that first game, which was one of the best baseball games I’ve ever seen,” Kessler said. “It was really big to jump out to that three-run lead because that team is not used to losing. They panicked and started arguing with each other.”

Bayside lost its opening game, 4-0, to Youth Service on July 3, despite the brilliant pitching of Keith Christensen, who struck out 13. After scoring an unearned run in the fourth inning, Youth Service added three runs in the sixth inning.

The Yankees trailed 5-0 to the host Welland Renegades in the second game of the tournament July 4, unable to touch the Renegades’ starter through three innings.

But Bayside jumped all over the next pitcher, scoring seven runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by a pair of two-run singles by Nick Derba and Franklino. McKenna also went 2-for-2 with two runs scored and Joshua Sitz picked up the win, pitching 3.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Steve Schult went the distance, allowing two earned runs on five hits, striking out seven and walking one, in Bayside’s 5-2 win over the Ontario Astros on Friday.

Leading 2-1 through five, the Yankees scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI-double by Derba, a run-scoring triple by McKenna and Yodice’s RBI-single.

Bayside’s fourth game of the tournament was Saturday against 3-0 Team Ontario, which jumped ahead 1-0.

The Yankees tied the game when Yodice scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning and Randy Belfiore’s suicide squeeze bunt with one out scored pinch-runner Daniel Pirillo to put Bayside ahead, 2-1.

Ryan Ekberg, who was clocked as high as 86 mph by radar guns, got the win, allowing one earned run on six hits while striking out nine and walking four in a complete-game win.

Bayside couldn’t rest on that result, because they needed to defeat the Falcons, also from Canada, to advance to the championship game. The Yankees made sure starter Robert Boland had plenty of run support, pounding out 11 hits in a 10-3 win also on Saturday. Yodice led the hit parade, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs.

Boland struck out 10, walked three and allowed six hits in six innings, while Brian Duffy had a strikeout in the seventh inning.

Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at [email protected] or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.