Toms River East Wins Little League Mid-Atlantic Opener

BRISTOL, CT — The Toms River East Little League all-stars opened the Mid-Atlantic Region tournament with a victory, defeating the Delaware state champions 3-0 in Bristol.

Joey DiMeo had a pair of hits, including a run-scoring triple in the third inning, and Cole Garrison struck out 10 batters in 5⅓ innings to lead Toms River East, which plays Maryland at 10 a.m. Monday at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League complex.

Toms River East put runners on the bases in the bottom of the first inning, as DiMeo and Carson Frazier walked with one out, according to the play-by-play account on GameChanger. But Carter Schurman sandwiched a walk to Garrison with strikeouts to get out of the jam.

They got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning. Steven Malato doubled to center field then advanced to third on a wild pitch. DiMeo tripled to right on a 3-2 pitch, allowing Malato to score. After a pitching change, DiMeo scored on a sacrifice fly by Jason Verderrosa to give Toms River East a 2-0 lead.

Toms River East tacked on a run in the bottom of the fifth, when Max Mika hit a line-drive single to right field to score Malato, who had come in as a courtesy runner for Verderrosa who had reached on an error to open the inning.

Delaware threatened in the top of the fifth, when Chase Lednum and Liam Fresconi hit back-to-back singles. But Adrian Bilotti caught a fly ball to right field for the second out and Cailen Cimorelli fielded a grounder at third base for the put-out to end the threat.

Garrison allowed a walk and three singles, and DiMeo came on to strike out the last two batters to close out the game.

Maryland's state champions, Montgomery County-Lower Little League, received a bye to the second game. The team is the first from Montgomery County to make the trip to Bristol, Bethesda Magazine reported.

Montgomery County-Lower advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Regional after losing in the second game of the state tournament and then winning five straight, including two games against Berlin Little League, to capture the state title.

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