Saratoga LL walks off with district opener win
Johnson draws walk to clinch 2-1 victory
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » There is no better way to get revenge against a team or a pitcher after you’ve been hit by a pitch than to make an impact with your bat later on.
For Holden Johnson, that meant forcing in the gamewinning run in walk-off fashion.
Johnson was plunked in the upper arm by Mechanicville Stillwater’s Ryan Grimmick to lead off the Saratoga Springs Little League’s first inning of the District 11 and 12 opening round of playoffs Monday night at West Side Recreational Park. Then it was only fitting that he was at the plate with bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning with one out and facing newly inserted pitcher Colin Kalteux.
With just a few warm-up pitches after coming in from third base in relief of Grimmick, Kalteux pushed the count to its max with one out and his final delivery of the game was out of the strike zone.
Johnson became the Saratoga hero, all smiles as he jogged up to first base with the ultimate revenge, a walkoff walk to open the district playoffs with a walk-off walk to clinch a 2-1 win.
“I saw that he was throwing high and stuff (during warmups), so I was coming up and I knew they were going to be
strikes, so I was trying to take a lot of pitches and then it was 3-1 and it was a little bit down, but he (umpire) called it a strike,” Johnson said. “I think he got nervous at the end, he was throwing really low, so I knew 3-2, it was probably going to be a ball, so I just took it and got to first base and run. Unless it was right down the middle I wasn’t going to swing.”
Grimmick was lifted after hitting the Little League maximum allowed 85 pitch count limit. He line included two hit batters, five walks, five strikeouts and both runs given up were unearned.
Saratoga pitcher Mateo Avila earned the one-hit win after being challenged by the Mechanicville lineup in the first inning, giving up his lone run, also unearned, and his lone hit, a double by Colin Richardson that drove in Kalteux.
“The kids make more contact in all-stars than in rec, these kids play travel and all that,” Avila said. “I think they were just looking to make contact and they’ve been working off faster pitching than in rec.”
After the shaky start, Avila had three straight 1-2-3 innings; striking out five, issuing two walks and seeing his defense execute four force outs on the bases. Catcher Jack Thompson fired down to first base to cut down Fen Egan jumping back to the base after leading off.
The Mechanicville runner jumped back and slid towards the bag, but broke contact as first baseman Alex Hicks remained holding his tag and was called out by the base path umpire in the fifth inning.
Saratoga manufactured its first run after Matt Salway led off the second inning with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on John Goff’s groundout and scored on the throw back to the third base bag on the initial play to knot the score at one apiece.
Grimmick held the Saratoga Blue Shirts in check for the duration of his start through the fifth inning.
“We were telling the boys at all the practices the first game is huge and that was probably the best match-up that we’re going to face on the mound for a while and that’s the fastest the boys have seen all year,” Babcock said. “During regular season they saw Mateo (Avila) and that was the fastest they saw. “This kid, I think he was throwing mid-60s and he brought it and we just got a little lucky on some throws and we put the ball in play.”
John Goff reached on a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the sixth inning before Avila hit a single and Joey Barreto loaded the bases with his walk as the final batter to face Grimmick allowing Johnson to step up to the plate for the dramatic final at-bat.
The District 11 and 12 playoffs include three round robin contests to determine the top two teams in both divisions with a best 2-outof-3 format in the championship round.
With the win Saratoga is the driver’s seat, but can’t take anything for granted with Thursday’s contest at Scotia and Sunday’s final at home against Duanesburg.
“You have to win two or three games to advance and we would love to get that No. 1 seed and have home field advantage for that crossover game,” Babcock said. “We’re going to treat every game, play that day to win that day. We’re not going to worry about the future, go one game at a time.”