DiMeo Grand Slam Lifts Toms River East To Next Round In Little League World Series

WILLIAMSPORT, PA — The Toms River East Little League team rallied for eight runs in the bottom of the fifth to beat Connecticut 11-4 on Saturday and stay alive in the Little League World Series elimination bracket.

Toms River East next is scheduled to play at 1 p.m. Monday, and will face the loser of Sunday's game between Michigan and Texas. The game is scheduled to be televised on ESPN.

"Every single player on this team contributed to this win," manager Paul Mika told the team after the game, which was broadcast on ABC.

Toms River East was trailing 4-3 when it came to bat in the bottom of the fifth inning, and its substitutes got the rally started.

"We needed to start a rally, so we started pumping everyone up, so we could get in a groove," Cole Garrison, who was 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Dominik Sabatino came off the bench and knocked a double into center field, then Tommy Intintola grounded out to the first baseman, allowing Sabatino to reach third. When Adrian Bilotti hit a fielder's choice ground ball to the Connecticut shortstop, Sabatino drew the shortstop's attention but got back to third base under the throw, allowing Bilotti to reach first base safely.

Cailen Cimorelli then hit a slow ground ball that got by the shortstop, allowing Sabatino to score to tie the game 4-4, and Bilotti to reach second base. Leadoff hitter Steven Malato, who reached base in four of his five at-bats, drew a walk, bringing up Joey DiMeo with the bases loaded.

DiMeo, who was hitless in the game at that point, got hold of a 1-1 pitch and drove it over the center field fence for a grand slam, giving Toms River East an 8-4 lead.

"We said to our subs 'We need your best at-bats' and guess what, they gave them to us," Mika said during the news conference, which was recorded and shared on the Little League World Series website. "And then the starters came in and finished off. I'm super proud of these boys."

But Toms River wasn't through. Jason Verderrosa, Max Mika and Carson Frazier all walked. Cole Garrison then singled to center, driving in Verderrosa. After a strikeout, Dominic Roma worked a seven-pitch walk, scoring Mika. That brought up Cimorelli again, who was hit by a pitch, scoring Frazier. Malato grounded to the Connecticut third baseman to end the inning.

Toms River had fallen behind 4-1 heading into the bottom of the third inning.

"I had a feeling we were going to come back because we always come back when we're down by a little bit," said DiMeo, who had scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-1.

Verderrosa and Mika singled, then after a pop-up, Garrison hit a line-drive single to center, allowing Sabatino (who was on as Verderrosa's special pinch-runner) to score. Christopher Tennaro then singled, driving in Mika, before Connecticut stopped the rally, and setting up the bigger rally later.

While the offense grabbed a lot of attention, Toms River East's defense was stellar as well.

In the first inning, with runners at second and third and a run already on the board, Toms River turned a double play, with a putout at first base from Frazier to Roma, who then fired home where Verderrosa tagged the runner at the plate to end the threat and leaving Connecticut up 1-0.

In the second, Roma caught a pop-up against the fence in foul territory, then in the top of the fourth knocked down a hit, grabbed the ball and threw from his knees to make the play at first.

Roma, who came on to pitch in relief of Frazier, also induced three ground balls to finish off the victory.

"This (playing in the Little League World Series) has been our dream for a long time," Mika said. The team was flat against Nebraska, he added, so they changed up practice on Friday.

"We went back to one of our normal practices from early in the season," Paul Mika said. "We kept them really loose. They knew what they had to do to come out here and win."

"This team doesn't quit," he said. "We kept our dream alive today."

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