Massapequa Coast 9-10 Year Old Team Claims Long Island Title Over Babylon

The Massapequa Coast 9-10 year old Williamsport Little League team claimed the Long Island championship on Sunday afternoon at Otsego Park in Dix Hills, NY. Coast defeated Babylon, the District 34 champions, by a score of 8-0. The newly crowned champions previously defeated this same Babylon team a day earlier on Saturday, 15-1.

“We have had tremendous pitching and have a solid batting order from one to nine,” said Massapequa Coast head coach Paul DiGiovanni. “With our defense improving, this really became a complete team. That double play in the fourth was huge and was a big momentum swing.”

Coast had a prime opportunity to take a lead in the top of the first inning with runners on second and third, but Babylon starting pitcher Peter Szuchy led his team out of the jam to remain tied. Coast avoided falling behind in the bottom of the inning after pitcher Nick Collins helped strand a Babylon runner at third base.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Babylon loaded up the bases following a leadoff walk and two singles. With no outs, Coast had work to do in order to keep the game nodded at a scoreless tie. Collins fielded a grounder and threw to catcher Mike Moreno to record the first out. A batter later, Coast forced the inning ending double play to push momentum to their side. 

In the top of the fifth, Collins gave Coast a 1-0 lead on an RBI double. In the next inning, Nick Schneidler hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 2-0. After a handful of hits, Anthony Patullo stepped up to the plate and with one swing of the bat, put the game out of reach with a grand slam to center field.

Collins pitched a complete game on the mound to back up the late offensive surge by Coast en route to the championship. 

“They came up with that big play to push them through. I think our starting pitcher had a great game for us and hoped he could’ve gone further, but we had some errors early in the game that spiked his pitch count a little, “ said Babylon head coach Colin Coffey. “Massapequa is a great hitting team and we are as well but just couldn’t pull it out today.”

Coast will move on to play in the New York State Tournament hosted in Albany against other Sectional champions. Their first game will take place on Thursday, July 21 at 6 p.m. against the Section III champion to be named.

“We are looking forward to moving on and we are a heck of a team to beat this year,” concluded DiGiovanni following the win.