Merrick Crushes Wantagh in Little League Districts

The Little League World Series in Williamsport.

It's the pinnacle of little league baseball, and it's the place where every little kid dreams of playing. On Wednesday, the Merrick team began its journey to Williamsport, Pennsylvania by defeating Wantagh in their opening round district game, 14-0.

Getting all the way to Williamsport may seem like a pipe dream, but not for these kids. Last year, not only did the Merrick team win the district, but they won the Long Island championship, and made it to the state finals before losing to Staten Island in a best-of-three series.

Had they been old enough to qualify, they may have very well been in Williamsport. But now they are old enough, and they're ready.

"The kids are amazing," Merrick coach Bob Pizzimenti said. "They've been together pretty much since they were eight. Today they were terrific. They did what they do: get base hits, make plays, and Jonah [Zeitlin] was amazing with his pitching."

Zeitlin was indeed amazing. He pitched a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits while striking out 10 batters.

"I felt really good," Zeitlin said, "I hadn't pitched in a while and it felt great to get back out there. But what really helped were my teammates backing me up with a lot of hits."

The two teams went scoreless over the first two innings in what started out as a pitcher's duel between Zeitlin and Wantagh's Jimmy Murphy.

However, in the third inning the Merrick team shook off the cobwebs and put up a big five-run inning.

After a walk to Bayyan Ngala-El and a single by James Ferry, Mike Schwartz drove in the first run of the game with a single. Kelvin Pabon followed with an RBI single to drive in two more, and Frank Pusateri drove in another run on a groundball that was misplayed by the shortstop. Merrick scored their last run of the inning on a double steal that saw Eric Pauly swipe home plate.

The hits kept coming for Merrick. In the fourth, Pauly drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and after a wild pitch scored Pabon, Josh Schuit drove in another run with a double to make it 8-0.

"I was seeing the ball well," Schuit said. "I got an outside pitch and drove it to left field and it dropped for one of my two doubles."

Wantagh had their best scoring threat in the bottom of the fourth. After singles by Corey Sachs, Aniello Infante and Nick Polo loaded the bases, Zeitlin beared down and got Justin Kleczka to fly out to shallow center, and struck out Stephen Crist to keep the shutout intact.

"The main thing that we need to do is to stay focused and stay strong," Wantagh coach Bryan Ciminelli said. "We have a lot of great kids out here and a lot of great attitudes. We're going to go out there and we're going to give whoever we're playing next a good fight."

Merrick had their biggest inning in the fifth. After a leadoff triple by Ngala-El, Ferry drove him in with an RBI single. Pabon followed with an RBI single of his own, and then Schwartz stole home on another successful double steal.

The longest drive of the game came next when Pauly launched a ball over the right field fence for a solo homer. Merrick added their last two runs when Logan Eisner drove in two with an RBI single to make it 14-0.

Zeitlin came out and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fifth, and that ended the game via the mercy rule since Merrick was leading by more than 10 runs.

"What's great is we have kids that can play anywhere," Pizzimenti said. "It's all about what you can do for the team and not individually."

Next, Merrick will play again tomorrow night as they continue their road to the Little League World Series, and they have high expectations indeed.

"Our team is going to go far because we know each other," Schuit said. "And we're going to play well."