Merrick's 8-Year-Old Sluggers Crush Bellmore

They may be small in size, but that does not mean the eight-year-old Merrick little leaguers do not have big talent up and down their roster.

The Merrick Nationals continued to roll through their summer season Sunday evening, defeating the Bellmore Bulls 18-4 at Camp Avenue School in front of a large crowd.

"They played great, everybody hit the ball today, they played great defense," Merrick coach Robert Crowley said. "And like I always tell them, defense wins baseball games."

The boys from Merrick, now 8-1 and atop the standings in their division of the National Junior Baseball League, were clicking on all cylinders Sunday, with timely hitting, big pitching and aggressive base running.

Throughout the game, Merrick base runners would look to take the extra base whenever possible, and each time a runner successfully made it, they were 60 feet closer to a run.

Kenny Franquiz started the game on the mound for the Bulls, attacking the strike zone constantly in his two innings of work. Merrick was able to put the ball in play off the Bellmore starter, and when a team puts the ball in play good things can happen.

Merrick scored five runs in the top of the first inning, including a leadoff homerun down the left field line off the bat of Ryan Kavanagh. That was only the tip of the iceberg as Merrick would go on to hit two more home runs in the inning. Josh Trook hit a three-run homer, followed by a two-run blast into right field by Matt Jones; only one of the runs counted due to the five-run limit per inning.

Bellmore would get some of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning due in large part to the Bulls' table setters at the top of the order. Max Hiller started off the inning with a single, followed by a walk drawn by Chris Costaro. Franquiz then hit a two RBI groundout to second base, and the Bulls inched a little closer on the scoreboard.

The starting pitcher for Merrick, Brandon Borrelli, pitched well in his two and one-thirds innings of work. Borrelli proceeded to walk the bases loaded after giving up the two runs in the first, but was able to strikeout two Bellmore batters and get out of the early jam.

Merrick added three more runs in the second inning with three consecutive RBI hits; Alec Dano and Jim Hannon both drove in a run to pad the Merrick lead. Franquiz recorded a big strikeout to get out of a bases loaded jam in the inning, stopping the Merrick offense for the time being.

Borrelli quickly got the Merrick bats up again as he struck out the side in the second inning in dominating fashion.

The Merrick offense had another huge inning, scoring five runs and sending seven players to bat. The inning was capped off by a three-run homerun by Sean Johnson, scoring Dante DiMarco and Cal Gibson on the play.

In the bottom half of the third, Bellmore scored some runs of their own, but a great play by the Merrick catcher, DiMarco, stopped the Bulls from scoring a few more. With no outs, the Bellmore runner on second attempted to steal third; DiMarco calmly threw down to third base to nail the runner for the first out of the inning.

After the first out was recorded, Costaro doubled for the Bulls. Franquiz then laced a two-run homerun up the right field line. Merrick brought in Trook to finish the inning and he successfully retired two of the next three batters.

"I'm very proud of you guys today," Bulls manager Rob Costaro told his team after the game. "You're so close to coming and winning these games, it just takes a little bit more fielding."

Costaro awarded the game ball to Franquiz for his big homerun in the third inning.

Merrick scored five more runs in the fourth, and Hannon came on to shut the door in the bottom half of the inning, preserving the 18-4 victory.

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