Orange All Star 11-12 Year Olds Shine

Left-hander Katie Koshes was simply spectacular Friday night for the Orange All Stars in the first night of the Little League Division 4 girls 11-12 year old round robin tournament at Stankye Field. In addition to walking twice, punching a single, stealing a base and scoring three runs, Koshes threw a complete six inning game where she not only defeated East Haven 7-3, she struck out 16 batters while walking two and allowing only three runs on four  hits.

“I was a little nervous at the start of the game but once the game got going, I settled down,” Koshes said. “A lot of times I do get a lot of strike outs because I throw hard. Tonight, I got a little tired at the end of the game.”

The winners scored at least one run in four of their five at bats. In the first inning, Koshes led off with a walk. Cassidy Kirby moved her to second base with a sacrifice bunt and she advanced over to third base on Teresa Marchitto’s long fly ball to right field and she scored when Martha Zhang swatted a single up the middle.

Orange tacked on three runs in the bottom of the second inning and extended its lead to 4-0. With one out, Kara Kachmar walked but was erased by a Jenna Thomas fielder’s choice. After Koshes drew her second free pass of the game, Kirby singled home pinch runner Kylie Stapleton. Koshes, who raced around to third base on Kirby’s base hit, scored on a wild pitch by East Haven starting pitcher Samantha Esposito. Kirby swiped second base and then made it 4-0 as she scored on the second of Esposito’s wild pitches.

Koshes lost her perfect game, her no-hit bid, and her shutout in the top of the third inning. Tina Paolillo drilled a one-out single into center field, swiped second base, raced over to third on a Zhang passed ball, and scored on a wild pitch.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Thomas drew a lead-off walk and was singled into third base by Koshes. Stapleton and Koshes pulled off a perfectly executed double steal to give the hosts a 5-1 lead.  Kirby waved at and missed a third strike but the ball skipped behind East Haven catcher, Lexi Palmer. As she retrieved the ball and tossed it to first base, Koshes raced home with her team’s sixth run.

Orange added a sixth insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Allie Gusmano led off with a base hit. Pinch runner Tori Gustafson moved up a base on a wild pitch and later scored on Katie Esposito’s roller down the first base line. Gusmano’s single was the winners’ fourth and final safety of the contest. East Haven pitchers also walked six batters and unloaded six wild pitches.

 Sailing into the top of the seventh with a 7-1 lead and having given up only the one hit to Paolillo, Koshes was banged around by East Haven in the pop of the seventh inning. After striking out Allie Coleman, Koshes served up a base hit to Palmer. McKenzie Redding and Esposito followed with back-to-back, RBI doubles down the right field. With her lead shaved back to four runs (7-3), Koshes reached back to end the game with consecutive strike outs of Amy DeFilippo and Alyssa Barcomb.

According to Orange Coach Frank Koshes, “We got off to a great start. Now we have a win under our belts. We hit the ball, ran the bases, pitched and played defense really well.  Katie not only throws hard, she has a lot of movement on her pitches. I like seeing our kids going to swing their bats, rather than watching pitches go by. I’ve coached this group of girls for four to five years and its been great to watch them grow and gell so well as a team. They really play well together.”

Orange hosts West Haven tonight in a 7:30 PM contest at Stankye Field. The two teams with the best records in the five-team round robin pool will meet in early July for the District 4 title and the right to move onto the sectionals.