The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Connecticut wins first game at World Series
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PA. » Matt Vivona was so caught up in the moment that he forgot that it was his 13th birthday.
After doubling and scoring a run in the first and driving in two more with a fourth-inning triple, Vivona and his Fairfield American teammates were cruising along with a five-run lead before New Jersey kicked open the door, scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth and having the tying run on first.
“That was the most nervous I’ve ever been in a baseball game,” Tyler Bauer said.
Ethan Righter had pitched Fairfield to that big lead and Michael Iannazzo fought to keep that lead. Needing one out, manager Mike Randazzo went to Bauer to close it out. Whew.
Bauer got that final out and Fairfield American held on for a nerve-wracking 7-6 victory over Jackson, N.J., in the opening game of the Little League World Series before 9,246 Thursday at Lamade Stadium.
“We joke about getting and needing 18 outs, but we needed every one of them today,” Randazzo said. “The last three outs are the most difficult, but fortunately, we got that last out.”
Fairfield remains undefeated in tournament play, improving to 19-0. The victory also matched the win total of the last two times Fairfield American reached Williamsport as the New England representative, going 1-2 in those previous two appearances.
Fairfield advanced into Sunday’s winner’s bracket game against the winner of the Great Lakes Region-Southeast Region game at 11 a.m. at Lamade Stadium.
Righter went 2-for-4 and scored two runs and pitched into the fourth before reaching his 85-pitch limit. He allowed just two runs and four hits while striking out seven.
“I was trying to get them to put the ball in play and get outs. Let my defense do the work, said
Righter, who improved to 9-0 this summer, raising his strikeout total to 81 in 41 innings.
“I was feeling real good today,” Righter said. “I threw a lot of pitches in not lot of innings, but Michael and Tyler backed me up, so it was all good.”
Sort of.
“I go out to the bullpen before the game and the first thing he (Righter) says is that he hasn’t thrown a strike with his fastball yet,” Randazzo said. “Clearly, it switched. He was hitting his spots today.”
Vivano’s double and Bauer’s RBI single gave Fairfield a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but New Jersey’s Tai Mann tied it 1-1 with a deep home run to right in the bottom of the inning. Andrew Cutler doubled and scored on an error in the second to make it 2-1 Fairfield. In the third, a double from Iannazzo and a strikeout-wild pitch allowed Vivano to reach and both scored when pinch-hitter Sean O’Neil singled to center to make it 4-1.
“As I’ve said before, we’re not at this point unless all 14 boys aren’t contributing at some point in each game. Fortunately, it was more of the same today,” Randazzo said. “That’s why they’re on this team. It’s a good group of boys, good group of players. They’ve been through this before.”
New Jersey scored in the fourth to make it 4-2 but Vivona’s two RBI triple — happy birthday! — pushed the Fairfield lead to 6-2 and another RBI single from Bauer made it 7-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth. Piece of cake, right? No chance. New Jersey rallied against reliever Iannazzo, scoring four runs, two coming on a long home run to left from Chris Cartnick, to make it 7-6. When Bauer came in and hit J.R. Osmond with a pitch, New Jersey had the tying run at first.