BOYS OF SUMMER
Saratoga Little League win on sweltering Saturday as all-star season begins
MECHANICVILLE, N.Y. » Rain, rain go away, let’s play baseball another day.
Mother Nature didn’t do the Saratoga Springs Little League Williamsport Division all-stars any favors, raining out the first two contests of the District 11/12 round robin contests forcing the Blue Shirts to play on five consecutive days and in a heat wave.
It wasn’t Mother Nature who was underestimated; it was the Saratoga All-Stars that were underestimated as the schedule change showed the depth of the local Little League pitching staff.
Saratoga manager Marc Delnicki sent new Blue Shirt Evan Ash to the mound and saw the lanky right-hander strike out 10 Mechanicville-Stillwater Little Leaguers on the way to a 5-1 win Saturday morning.
Ash pitched the limit, almost able to earn the complete game win, but Mechanicville’s Liam Brady spoiled the accomplishment with a two-out double to centerfield for Ash’s final batter.
Brady came around to score on Jason Mueller’s RBI single for the
lone Mechanicville-Stillwater run.
Ash was in control throughout the contest, including striking out the side in the third on 15 pitches.
“Mostly fastballs and some curve balls at times and I think they were really late on my fastballs,” Evan Ash said about his pitching selections.
His out pitch on Saturday was an outside fastball.
“We have a really strong pitching staff,” Saratoga coach Marc Delnicki said. “We used up one of our pitchers yesterday, we used up the other one today (Evan Ash), but we have a really, really strong top four and we have seven, eight solid pitchers that we use.
“I don’t think that it even crosses the kid’s mind that playing the five games in a row is anything that we can’t do. When it first came up that we were going to have five games in a row and in Saratoga Little League slugger Matt Sgambati is congratulated after hitting a solo home run in the fifth inning Saturday morning at Mechanicville-Stillwater Little League. the heat, I told the kids ‘It’s just going to make us stronger for the next level.’”
The Saratoga starter also helped out his cause, drilling a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the third inning.
“I wasn’t looking for it, just looking for a base hit,” Ash said. “It was low, down the middle.”
Orion Lansing led off the offense for Saratoga with an opening frame single, coming around to score on Owen Redick’s sacrifice fly to left field.
Josh Delnicki reached on a fly ball to left field that caught the tip of the outfielder’s glove, moving over on a wild pitch before Louis Betit drove him home with an RBI double. Aidan Eckley plated him with an RBI single to right for a 3-0 lead.
Saratoga’s Matt Sgambati loaded up with two strikes on him in the bottom of the fifth for the five run lead.
It was a balanced attack on Saturday with Ash commanding the strike zone, strong hitting throughout the line-up and a defense that turned a first-inning double play and missed another by a step late behind Ash in the fourth.
“I think that they know if they do their jobs behind the pitchers that we’ll be in good shape,” Delnicki said.
As the Saratoga All-Stars are matching through District play, looking for the top seed in the best of three series, they can rely on its combination of veterans and new stars for a chance to advance to Williamsport.
“Last year all-star team came in fourth in the state, won the District, won the Sectionals, went to the states and made it to the semifinals in the states,” Delnicki said. “This team has four kids on it that were not on the team last year, four very strong players that were not on the allstar team last year.
“We’ve had some pretty good success in the past and I think that the kids just play well together. They know each other, they play well together.”