Cardinals Win Family Day Championship Over Orioles

For four innings the Cardinals and Orioles were locked in a 1-1 pitching dual. In the fifth and sixth innings, the bats took over and the Cardinals showed why they're undefeated with a dramatic 5-4 walk-off win in the Northern League Championship game at Gero Park for Family Day Saturday.

"It's very exciting because my son, this is his fifth year and his last year, my older son. So I've been with these boys for five years, since they started," said Cards head coach Jeff Hersh. "For us it's just a tremendous thing. There's no better script to not only win the division, win the league, win Family Day and go undefeated. There's no better way to end a Little League career."

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Miles Park laced an RBI double down the left field line with the ball getting all the way to the wall, allowing Tyler Gould to score the winning run from first base.

"I had no doubt in my mind that when it was crunch time, they stuck together no matter what through adversity, and I knew they would do it," Hersh said. "If they were going to get beat they were going to get beat by a better team. They weren't going to beat themselves."

The game-ending run came after the Orioles erased a three-run deficit in the top half of the inning, all of which began with two outs and no one on base. Maxwell Kaps started the Oriole Rally with a base hit to right field, Alex Hou was then hit by a pitch and Nicholas Minter followed with a single up the middle, loading up the bases.

Alexander Tomko drilled a fastball to left-center, driving in the Oriole's second run. Christopher Stone drove in the next run on an infield chopper which sailed high into the air. The Cards' second baseman tried to get the force out at second, but threw it past the shortstop, allowing the Oriole's third run of the inning to cross, tying up the game at four.

"We haven't lost all year, so it's not in my mind and it's not in the kids' minds. I had all the confidence in the world that they would do it," Hersh said. "They made some nice plays to get from 4-1 to 4-4. Then we were the home team so we had last licks. It was our time."

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Cardinals seemingly seized control of the contest when Zachary Hersh crushed a two-run homerun to leftfield, giving his team a 3-1 lead. Two batters later, Matthew Jacob blasted a nearly identical homerun over the leftfield fence.

Minter scored the first run of the game on when the Cardinal first baseman could not come up with the throw from shortstop. In the bottom half of the inning, Jacobs drove in the game-tying run.

Oriole starting pitcher Eric Stone was very strong through the first four innings of play and had just the one bad frame in the fifth. Hersh, who started for the Cards, was also very good, only giving up the one run through the first four innings. Michael Garawitz was the ending pitcher for the Cards, and Alex Tomko finished off the game for the Orioles.

For the Cards, the win improved them to a remarkable 21-0 record, and it was the Orioles sixth straight appearance in the Family Day championship game.

Other Scores

Southern League: Bulls 6, Rays 4

Gulf Coast League: Badgers 13, Wildcats 3

International League: Cobras 9, Giants 7

Atlantic Coast League: Royals 16, Angels 15

Correction: The original story said Lucas Bennett scored the winning run. It has been updated to state Tyler Gould scored the winning run.