PLATTSBURGH TOPS SARATOGA 11-12 LL
North Country squad cruises to 13-2 win in Game 2
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » There were two banners presented Sunday afternoon at West Side Recreation Park. Both represented 11-12 year-old championships, but only Plattsburgh Little League had its ticket punched to the New York State (Williamsport Division) tournament after a 13-2 four-inning win over Saratoga.
The North Country stars captured the Section II title, winning the best-of-three series with an opening win Saturday at home, 11-1 before traveling down the Northway to the Spa City and earn the win Sunday afternoon.
“Yesterday was just the same thing, we had one or two bad innings, just errors all over the place and I don’t know if it was nerves or just not making plays on the ball or tracking the ball very well,” Saratoga Little League manager Jeff Babcock said. “Just overall our defense was not there and defense wins championships.”
Plattsburgh had a muted first
inning, plating just one run after Carter King led off with a walk, stole second before advancing on a groundout to short. He scored on Zach O’Connell’s sacrifice fly to center field for a precarious one-run lead.
The blue shirts weren’t intimidated by the early lead as Matt Salway helped his own cause leading off the second with a single and watching Trevor Duthaler deliver a two-run home run and a 2-1 lead.
The euphoria in the Saratoga dugout was short lived as Plattsburgh delivered an eight-run third inning.
A single and a double put pressure on the blue shirts and then a dropped third strike allowed O’Connell to reach first safely to load the bases before Colin Golden delivered a grand slam and staked his own starter, O’Connell, a 5-2 lead.
Plattsburgh wasn’t done as the next four batters reached safely and Bostyn Duquette’s two-run double to center field later in the order made it 9-2.
O’Connell continued to deal on the mound working a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the third allowing for Plattsburgh to get right back at it in the top of the fourth as O’Connell drilled his own solo home run to start the inning and the North Country District 37 champions added four more runs for a 13-2 lead.
O’Connell faced just four batters in the fourth, issuing a walk late before closing out the contest with his fifth strikeout in four innings to end the contest.
“They can hit, they put the ball in play and we just didn’t make the plays when we needed to,” Babcock said.
“Yesterday was one bad inning and we should have been out of it, 1-1 through three innings and then today we could have had it 2-1 the whole time and then that one inning we just dropped a ball in right field, dropped two balls behind the plate and that hurt pretty bad right there. It happens, it’s Little League.”
Plattsburgh was presented with the Section II regional banner and earned a berth at the New York State tournament in the Bronx beginning next week while the Saratoga squad had to take solace in getting that one final photo with the newly minted District 11 championship banner.
The loss was disappointing; the first loss in seven contests for the Little League Division all-stars, but the journey should be appreciated.
“It brings back memories for me from when I played,” Babcock said. “I didn’t make it this far, but to make it this far with these guys has been an unreal experience. We only played seven games, but it was a helluva ride and it was a blast.”
The next step begins in the fall for the District 11 champions, losing in the Section II final today, but graduating to bigger things and bigger fields next.
“Most of these kids will be playing modified and then hopefully a lot of them will be playing for our Saratoga travel team and hopefully I’ll be able to move up with these guys,” Babcock said.
“I stressed to them for modified ball if they really want to play and get better they’re going to have to put the work in. It’s not going to be given to them.
“They definitely have a good nucleus of players right here and then the kids from East Side and Wilton, if they all merge together it’s going to be a very good school baseball team.”