By Greg Cameron
After playing five games over the course of seven days, what was an extra three innings to manager Marc Camerlin’s 15-16 year old Babe Ruth tournament entrant Westfield Police?
Second baseman Brandon Affeldt knocked in teammate Victor Rosario with a one-out single in the bottom of the tenth to give Police a wild 3-2 victory over Advance Manufacturing at Billy Bullens Field last night. Affeldt left the diamond with a pair of hits and pair of RBI in the City Cup victory.
“I’ve been watching David Ortiz as I’ve been growing up and I tried to be like him,” Affeldt wryly said of his walk-off heroics. “I waited for my pitch and took advantage of it.”
Going into the bottom of the tenth, Police trailed 2-1 after Advance’s Karl Kober plated Adam Mayhew with a sacrifice fly to center field. In addition to the key RBI, Kober threw five strong innings mixing in four strikeouts to pace Advance on the mound.
Outfielder Lee Papadimitrio got the tenth inning Police rally rolling with a leadoff ground-rule double to left-center field. As the ball sailed into the warm Westfield night, many in attendance at Bullens field believed the ball had cleared the fence through the air and not by way of a bounce.
“I just tried to make contact with it and get something started,” Papadimitrio said. “I had my head down, I didn’t know if it was gone or not,” he added.
After the double, Rosario picked the perfect time and place to lay down his first bunt of the season to move Papadimitrio over to third and give Police runners on the corners. Kyle Murphy then followed with a sacrifice fly of his own plating the shaggy-haired Papadimitrio. Danny Jacques drew a key walk, followed by Anthony Nomakeo drawing an intentional pass to batters later before Affeldt’s heroics.
Nomakeo threw six innings of relief in the Police victory. The righthander chipped in six strikeouts through the course of his outing.
“I was just trying to get through the innings with what I had left and throw strikes,” Nomakeo said of his performance in the game’s later innings.
Advance got on the Bullens Field scoreboard early with a sacrifice fly from Robby Sullivan in the top of the first inning. Affeldt plated Andrew Schultz with an RBI single in the fourth inning for Police’s first run of the evening.
To reach last night’s final, Police needed to defeat Advance on Saturday night. Behind a stout pitching performance collaborated by Papadimitrio and Schultz, Police won Saturday’s contest 6-1.
On Saturday, Nomakeo chipped in with a key two-run double off of Mayhew, who was Advance’s starter. Aubrey Partyka scored in the fourth to put Police up by four after Chris Hilliard advanced on an infield error.
Advance answered back with an RBI single from Chris Williams which plated Billy Wagner. In the seventh, Jacques scored on a Williams wild pitch and Nomakeo chipped in with an RBI single to seal the win for Police.
Cortina Tile 6, Berkshire Industrial Group 2
After going 0-5 against Amanti Cup playoff’s top seed, Berkshire Industrial Group, something had to give for third-seeded Cortina Tile in Saturday’s championship game in Westfield. After losing the first five matchups between both teams, Cortina’s resiliency had shown through on an overcast afternoon at Billy Bullens Field as manager Brian Sullivan’s crew came away with a 6-2 victory.
“We played them tough and kept having tough innings,” Sullivan said about how his squad fared against Berkshire during the regular season. “The kids thought they could beat them this time around and they deserve this win,” he added.
Shortstop and leadoff man extraordinaire Vincenzo Carbone led the way for Cortina with some late-inning heroics. Carbone finished his afternoon at Billy Bullens Field by drawing a key sixth inning walk that started a big frame for Cortina and belting a seventh inning triple to deep left-center field.
“It felt amazing,” Carbone gushed about his triple. “It [the pitch] was right down the middle and I took it to left center,” he added.
Cam Robitaille then strode up to the plate and advanced on an infield error to put runners on the corners for Cortina. Nate Summers then hit into a fielder’s choice but Carbone crossed the plate.
Two hitters later, Jeff Hockenberry drew a walk and Chris Sullivan followed with a single to score Robitaille. Kenny McLean then followed up with a 2-run single to put Cortina up 5-1.
Cortina’s sixth and final run came from Chris Sullivan who scored on a wild pitch in the sixth. All in all, Cortina sent ten hitters to the plate against Berkshire pitcher Jacob Hough during the sixth frame.
Cortina starter Nate Summers went four impressive innings striking out seven Berkshire hitters. However, Summers’ afternoon on the mound wasn’t without some stressful moments.
Summers surrendered a first-inning leadoff single to Mike Santaniello, who later stole second. Noah Parker followed Santaniello on the base paths by drawing a walk.
Matt Bruno then reached base on an infield single. Berkshire third baseman Jeff Tobias got plunked by a Summers offering to plate Santaniello.
After conceding the run, Summers settled right down and got Jacob Hough on strikes, Dominic Liquori to ground into a force play at the plate and Alex Marcyoniak to fly out to the mound.
In addition to Summers, McLean tossed three innings of relief. The diminutive southpaw stuck out three in his time on the mound Saturday afternoon.
