New City National All Stars in Tough Loss

New City Little League Nationals baseball squad opened the All Star season with  a tough defeat on Thursday night, falling to Ramapo, 13-0.

New City played hard, however, their opponent's excellent pitching kept them at bay while the Ramapo lineup caught on fire.  #7 Andrew Bunyan started the game pitching for New City, and pitched through the middle of the fourth.  He had a solid performance as he let up only two runs before he was taken out and Ramapo went wild.  Unfortunately, such games happen, however New City has another chance to take home a victory this Monday.

By the bottom of the second, Ramapo was in the lead 2-0.  To start the third, the second baseman, #33 Matt Asheim, made a nice play as he fielded a hard-hit grounder to get the batter out at first.  The shortstop, #6 Kyle Carbone, followed this up by fielding a grounder to again get the batter out at first.  The next batter got on off a shot down the third baseline, however Bunyan kept his composure to strike out the next and close the inning.

Ramapo retaliated with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the third to keep New City scoreless.  This brought them to the top of the fourth, when the Ramapo bats lit up to score eleven more runs.  After letting up a single and a walk to open the inning, Bunyan was replaced by #25 Michael Cummings.  He got his first out with some help from his centerfielder, #2 Nicholas Fiore, who made a great catch on a deep fly ball.  Then Ramapo began their run, as first an RBI single and then a two RBI double put them up 5-0.  This was followed by a single and then a strikeout as the two teams continued to battle it out.

Things continued to get more desperate for New City, as nerves started to show when Ramapo scored another run off a dropped catch in leftfield.  The momentum now fully behind Ramapo, Cummings let up a three run homer to bring the score to 9-0.  Cummings was then replaced by #29 Sean Culwell.  Ramapo continued to put their bats on the ball, as they scored four more runs in four at bats off a single and a double brought home by two home runs.  Carbone then came in to pitch and ended the disastrous inning, as he fielded a grounder for an out at first.

With the mercy rule now in effect, New City needed to score in order to keep the game going beyond the fourth.  They started off the inning well, with back to back singles from #8 Matt DeBlasio and #25 Michael Cummings.  Unfortunately, they were not able to make it home to score.  Bunyan was struck out to bring up Carbone, who connected with a grounder down the third baseline.  Unfortunately for New City, this was snagged by the Ramapo third baseman, who made an excellent double play as he tagged third and threw out Carbone at first to leave Cummings stranded and close the game 13-0.

New City put up a strong effort against a very tough opponent.  Ramapo pitched excellently and hit astoundingly to bring them a decisive victory.  Games like this happen, and the talented New City Nationals are taking it in stride as they look toward the future.  Nationals Manager Rocco Fiore admitted that Ramapo hit very well, however he did not see any major changes that needed to be made for Monday, as New City did play a solid game.  In looking ahead to Monday, Fiore is thinking about the basics.

 "I have a lot of talented players," said Fiore, "I'll be looking at which pitchers I have available."

The New City Nationals look to bring home a victory when they play Suffern on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Suffern.