Milton Babe Ruth Eliminated by Surging Braintree

Milton Babe Ruth's 14-year-old team faced off against Braintree Thursday night to determine who would come out of the loser’s bracket in the District Tournament and earn the right to play against undefeated Quincy on Friday.

Milton had  when they played last Friday, 6-2. But this time around it was a different story as Braintree played a practically flawless ballgame and eliminated Milton from the tournament by beating them, 14-0 in five innings.

“Braintree’s a great team,” Milton coach Lloyd Hill said. “With Gino Loraossa pitching, he’s a shutdown-type pitcher, and their bats are very powerful. Baseball’s a game of momentum. We played very well our first game, and in this game you have to give credit where credit is due and Braintree just took it to us and just never let up in the game whatsoever.”

Braintree got things started early and quickly in this game. After Loraossa, making his first pitching appearance of the tournament, got through the top of the first relatively easily, his batterymate Kevin Hock led off in the bottom half of the inning by hitting a groundball that looked like it would be an out. But Hock hustled to first and an errant throw allowed him to head all the way to third, where another bad throw enabled him to trot home.

It was a sign of things to come.

Twenty-seven minutes after the inning began, Braintree had scored 10 runs and 16 batters had come to the plate. Three Braintree players (Hock, center fielder Billy Keane and Loraossa) each scored twice in the inning.

“That’s what we needed to do,” Braintree assistant coach Domonic Zingarelli said. “We told the kids we need to jump on them and not give up. We knew we had to get on them early. We knew if we jumped on them early they would have a hard time climbing uphill, and the kids executed exactly how we wanted. Every single one of them, one through nine and subs, did exactly what we told them to do.”

After the first, it was the Gino Loraossa show for Braintree. Loraossa pitched the first four innings, allowing just one hit (a two-out single in the second) and two walks. He also struck out four Milton hitters. He didn’t disappoint at the plate either, going 3-4 and falling a home run short of the cycle.

“He stepped up big time right when we needed him,” Zingarelli said of Loraossa. “He came in and we needed him to have a great game, and he did exactly what he was told to do. He went in there and threw strikes. He threw a great fastball, good velocity. He threw his curveball for strikes, and he hit the batters [off balance]. He just had a great overall game. He was great for us. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from him.”

Braintree scored two runs in the second and two more in the third to complete their 14-run assault. They will now play Quincy Friday at 5:30 p.m. in the finals of the double elimination tournament. If they win, the two will play a winner-take-all game on Saturday morning for the right to go to the State Tournament in Lynn. If Quincy wins they win the District Tournament because Braintree already has one loss.