For , the formula for victory in their State Championship Game against Erial Little League was simple. All they had to do was turn to their Hiro.
Hiro Mizutani pitched his second complete game shutout of the tournament and for the first time in its history, Paramus Little League won the 12-year-old state championship, defeating Erial 3-0 on a rainy evening at Monroe Township Little League.
“I just happened to have, in my opinion, the best pitcher in the state,” Paramus manager Frank Smith said. “When you have that going for you, there's a lot of confidence from my team, to my parents, to my players, there's an energy around the kid. He's an unbelievable player.”
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Mizutani allowed just three hits in the game, striking out nine Erial hitters in the process. The only spot where he found himself in trouble was in the sixth inning. Erial loaded the bases thanks to a catcher's interference call, an error and a single.
With Erial cleanup hitter Gianni D'Antonio batting and Mizutani at 80 pitches, it was now or never for Paramus' ace. If D'Antonio would have gotten on, at least one run would have scored and Paramus would have had to go to their relievers.
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“I had two or three guys that have good off-speed pitches that I would have put in there in a heartbeat,” said Smith. “But with bases-loaded, it would have been 3-1 if someone else came up so it's a tough spot to be in.”
With the anticipation building and Mizutani facing one of Erial's best hitters, he buckled down, getting D'Antonio to look at back-to-back pitches and then foul one off to force a 1-2 count. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Mizutani threw a fastball about chest-high. D'Antonio, appearing to be looking for a curveball, didn't even react. Strike three was called to end the game and Paramus swarmed around Mizutani, who seemed confused by his teammates' reaction.
“I'm not sure he knew that there was two outs,” said Smith, “because he didn't exactly jump when everyone else did.”
Paramus was held to four hits by Erial pitcher Jake Vespa, but they put together a good first inning to give them an early lead. Brandon Smith led the game off with a single, and the moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt by Joe Regalbuto. Nick DeNigris followed that with an RBI single that scored Smith, making it a 1-0 Paramus lead. The next batter, Mike Daniele, hit a grounder that stayed just fair down the left field line. DeNigris easily scored giving Paramus a 2-0 lead.
Paramus' only other run came in the third inning. With the bases loaded and one out for Paramus, Smith hit a deep fly ball to center field. The hit was deep enough to score Danny Criscione tagging up from third base, giving Paramus a 3-0 lead on the sacrifice fly.
Paramus wouldn't need any more runs, however, with Mizutani on the mound. This team has proven that they can shut down a powerful offense and will now try to do it at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals.
“We knew if we faced their secondary pitching, we knew we could scratch a few runs which is exactly what happened,” said manager Smith. “When we got the upper hand I thought the advantage was ours from start to finish. I would have liked to score some more runs but we're not a power-hitting team. We're a defensive pitching team.
Paramus celebrated their win on the field with a lap with the state championship banner. The team threw whipped cream pies, ice cream and sprayed milk as hugs were exchanged among teammates.
“We've been practicing for years to get to this, since we were 8 years old,” second baseman James Rendine said. “11 of the 13 guys on the team were on the team since we were eight. It's a dream come true.”
“It's a great feeling,” said DeNigris. “Right now, I'm still in shock. People were calling us smurfs, saying we're the tiniest team and we pulled it out. We showed them wrong.”
“Our goal was to win our District for the first time in 13 years," Smith said. "Then to go to sections, lose our first game, win every game after that, then come here and just play some good baseball against some unbelievable teams.”
For Paramus, they now advance to the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament in Bristol, Conn. Their first game will be on Saturday at 5 p.m. against the Pennsylvania state champion, Keystone Little League. For some of the Paramus kids, the opportunity to potentially play on ESPN next week is exciting.
“I always dreamed of this since I was a little kid, playing on TV and watching them,” said DeNigris.
“It's going to be awesome being on TV,” Rendine said.
Paramus will play four round-robin games next week. In addition to playing Pennsylvania on Saturday, they will play Washington D.C. on Sunday, Delaware on Tuesday and New York on Wednesday. The top four teams in the round robin advance to the regional semifinals, which will be televised on Friday, Aug. 12 on ESPN2.
