Team Long Island 99 1st Tournament of the Season

“Welcome To Our Nightmare” Sunday Results: 3-2; Reaches Semi-Finals VOORHEES, NJ – In our first tournament of 2013, Team Long Island 99 was one victory shy of advancing to the championship game of the “Welcome To Our Nightmare” 14U tournament. We went 5-2 this weekend, which included four close wins. Our two losses were against the tournament champion, Jersey Nightmare, and the runner up, the Mystics Red. Team Long Island 5, PA Aftershock 1 Our 8:00am game was a matchup against the #23 seed PA Aftershock. Despite their 0-3 record, the Aftershock was a very athletic, and defensively sound team that featured two very good pitchers. Jessica Hom set the tone of the game with her defense. The Aftershock’s leadoff hitter drove a hard ground ball that Hom fielded cleanly for the first out. The next batter drilled a grounder up the middle, Hom stretched to her left, dove, popped up, and threw a strike to Gianna Ranieri for the second out. In the 4th, Hom fielded a slow chopper with a very fluid “on the run” throw. And in the 6th, Hom got in front of a ground ball in the hole, and snapped a throw to Brianna Pinto for the force at second. After the play, the homeplate umpire removed his mask, and give a complimentary word to a few of our parents, “Smooth.” The offense was provided by Janae Barracato and Samantha Merino, who both had RBI triples. Sabrina Caputo had an RBI single, and Jaclyn Rodriguez contributed with a sacrifice fly. Jenny Hickey was masterful in this game, pitching 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits with 5 strikeouts and 3 walks. In the 5th inning, the Aftershock scored their only run on a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-1. With a runner on third, Hickey dug deep and struck out the hitter to end the inning. An inning later, with a runner on base, Hickey struck out the final batter to close out the victory. Team Long Island 3, Delco Rage Red 1 The Delco Rage Red was the 7th seed by virtue of a 6-1 win over Delaware Cobras, a 7-1 victory over Burlington Sting, and a 6-5 loss to the NJ Breakers (the #4 seed). This was a classic pitchers duel between Tonianne Larson and Leigh Ann Jenkins. In the top of the 1st, Janae singled to right. Jaclyn Rodriguez blooped a single past the pitcher’s mound putting runners on first and second, with two outs. Merino’s ground ball went right through the first baseman’s legs for the first error, and a 1-0 lead. The next batter, Hannah Pineda reached on an error to the second basemen, making it 2-0. In the bottom of the 1st, Delco Rage Red responded with a single to center. A stolen base was followed by a passed ball, then an infield single cutting our lead to 2-1. After walking the number three hitter, Larson found her rhythm. She struck out the next two hitters and induced a grounder to Ranieri for the third out. The bottom of the 2nd began with a hard line drive toward right center, which was tracked down by Samantha Merino who made a perfect throw to Hom to nail the runner trying to stretch the single to a double. The infield attempted to complete two ground ball double plays, which just missed. These two contests were great games to watch, as TeamLI 99 displayed our best defense ever, as our infielders and outfielders were very sharp. Larson pitched well over the final four innings, scattering one hit and two walks . Both Larson and Jenkins gave up one earned run on five hits. The difference was Delco Rage Red committed three errors, and TeamLI 99 was flawless on the field. Team Long Island 6, Jersey Intensity 5 Jersey Intensity is one of the most successful organization in the northeast, and we knew this would be a battle. Although this was our first meeting against Intensity, we have faced Julianna Rodriguez and Gianna Mavica back in October 2011 when they were members of the Jersey Flames. Jersey Intensity entered the game 4-0 and as the #2 seed with victories over Chaos (13-5), PA Aftershock (5-1), Midway Orange Crush (3-0) and South Jersey Mystics (4-3). TeamLI 99 was 4-1 thus far in the tourney, and we had also beaten the Aftershock by the same 5-1 score. Coach Angel Mangual handed the ball to Tonianne Larson for the second straight game. Intensity opened the scoring with their leadoff hitter reaching base on an error. She stole 2nd, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball. TeamLI 99 answered back in the top of the 2nd. Rodriguez worked out a walk. She moved to second on a sacrifice by Merino. Rodriguez stole third. And on a 2-1 pitch, Hannah Pineda reached safely on a bunt single. Olivia Krevatas came in as a courtesy runner for Pineda. Hom slapped a line drive to center. Hickey followed with a slap of her own to center. With the bases loaded, Pinto walked to make the score 2-1. Ranieri came through in the clutch with a single to left driving in two runs, giving TeamLI 99 a 4-1 lead. In the bottom of the 2nd, after a leadoff walk, Intensity hit a groundball right to 2B Hickey. She flipped it to Hom, who stepped on second base and threw it to Ranieri for TeamLI 99′s first ever ground ball double play! The players and parents erupted, acknowledging another well executed defensive play. In the top of the 3rd, we extended our lead to 5-1. With Merino on second, Hom bunted toward third. The pitcher quickly field the ball, turned, and threw to an unoccupied first base. Merino scored easily on the play. In the bottom of the 4th, Intensity struck back. Three doubles in the inning made it a 5-3 game. Two of the doubles were hard liners over the left fielder’s head, which Kirstin Cox ran down all the way from CF to prevent the doubles from being triples. With runners on first and third and one out, Hom snared a hard line drive, looked to third, then fired to Ranieri, who made a full split to complete the double play and end the inning. In their half of the 5th, Intensity made it a 5-4 game with blooped a single to right to cut the lead to 5-4. Larson was able to end the 5th with a strike out, leaving the bases loaded. Pineda led off the 6th with a line drive single to left. Sophia Jacoby came in as a courtesy runner and went to second as Hom blooped a single to short left. Then, pinch hitter Sabrina Caputo lined a single to center, scoring Jacoby and giving us an important insurance run and a 6-4 lead. In the bottom of the 6th, Intensity quickly loaded the bases with nobody out. The next batter hit a comebacker to Larson, who threw home for a force play for out number one. On a 3-2 pitch, Larson just missed on an outside fastball. The walk forced in a run, making it 6-5, still only one out and the bases loaded. The next hitter dribbled a grounder to Larson who went home again for another force play. Two outs. Larson’s first pitch just misses the inside corner. On the next pitch, the batter takes a called strike on the outside corner. With the count 1-1, the batter swings late on a Larson fastball. At 1-2, Larson goes up the ladder with a high pitch, and just misses. So, we’re in the bottom of the 6th, TeamLI 99 is up 6-5, bases loaded, two out, the count is 2-2. On her 97th pitch of the game, Larson catches the outside corner as the batter takes called strike three to end the game. TeamLI 99 beats Jersey Intensity 6-5. Mystics Red 13, Team Long Island 6 The Mystics Red entered this semi-final game with a 5-0 record, with victories over South Jersey Vikings (3-0), NJ Heist (13-0), Lower South Liberty (7-6), Chaos (9-4) and Lacey Storm (5-4). TeamLI 99 (5-1) started the game without Larson, who threw 192 pitches over the past two games and Pinto who injured her ankle. The Mystics Red pitcher kept our hitters off-balance the entire game. She mixed speeds very, very well. And when she did throw a fastball, our hitters were way behind. Despite scoring six runs on ten hits, TeamLI 99 batters were impatient and did not string hits together. The Mystics Red hitters did a fantastic job at the plate. They were patient, working out five walks. They put the ball in play, only striking out once during the entire game. Ranieri started and Hickey came in to relieve. Our offense did have terrific contributions from Merino and Caputo, who both went 2-for-3, with an RBI and a run scored. Rodriguez drove in 2 runs, and both Ranieri and Krevatas had an RBI each. Hickey finished strong at the plate, going 2-for-2. Notes Incorporating our Fall 2012 record of 8-5, as a first year 14U team, our record is now 13-7….Thank you to Grandma, Gina and Ruth for making the long drive to cheer the girls on during Championship Sunday….Kudos to Sophia Jacoby for pinch running in two games as well as working on her swing throughout the weekend. She took over 1,000 one handed swings on the tee, focusing on her hand path….Brianna Pinto injured her ankle during the Intensity game, and sat out against Mystics Red….We are expecting to get Emma Nidermaier, Jacoby and Pinto off of the disabled list later this week….Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa for keeping up the tradition they started: handing out delicious brownies to the girls and TeamLI 99 family at the end of our tournament weekend.