Toms River East Wins Again, Advances To Mid-Atlantic Semifinal

BRISTOL, CT — The Toms River East Little League baseball all-stars took another step forward Monday in their quest to get to the Little League World Series, beating Maryland 3-1 in a Mid-Atlantic Region tournament game.

Toms River East is scheduled to play at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Mid-Atlantic Region semifinal game against Pennsylvania, which beat New York 11-3 on Monday afternoon. The game will be televised on ESPN.

The winner of that game will go to Williamsport, because the top two teams from each region advance this year. Teams from outside the United States are not traveling to Williamsport this year.

Toms River East fell behind early as the Maryland state champions from Montgomery County-Lower Little League put up a run in the bottom of the first inning, according to the Gamechanger game report. Maryland got first-pitch singles from Logan Rayment Cruz and Will Taylor, and loaded the bases when Marcus Dober walked. After Toms River East's Steven Malato caught an infield fly for the first out, Cruz scored on a passed ball to give Maryland a 1-0 lead.

But Carson Frazier struck out the next two batters to get Toms River East out of the inning.

Frazier, who struck out nine batters in six innings, allowed five hits over the six innings and hit four batters, but did not allow Maryland any momentum after the first inning.

His teammates, meanwhile, took care of the offense, led by Max Mika, who was 2-for-3 and drove in all three runs for Toms River East.

Mika came to bat in the top of the fourth with two outs and Cole Garrison, who was hit by a pitch, and Chris Tennaro, who singled, on base. Garrison and Tennaro advanced to third and second, respectively, on a wild pitch, and with two strikes against him, Mika fouled off five straight pitches before driving a hard single on the ground into center field. Garrison scored and Tennaro scored on the throw back to the infield, the Gamescore account said.

Mika tacked on the third run in the top of the sixth inning, with a hard hit left field to bring in Garrison, who had reached on an infield hit.

New York, like Maryland, had a bye in the first round. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, defeated the District of Columbia team 5-1 on Sunday afternoon.

Maryland faces the Washington, DC team at 4 p.m. Tuesday in an elimination bracket game. Delaware, which lost to Toms River East 3-0 on Sunday morning, will play New York in the other elimination game at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

This article has been updated with the result of the Pennsylvania-New York game.

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