WALK-OFF WINNERS
Owen Redick delivers walk-off grand slam for District 11⁄12 title
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Saratoga Springs Little League starting pitcher began his stint on the mound by giving up a home run, he closed out his outing by giving up a two-run double, but ended his night in heroic fashion, hitting a walk-off grand slam to capture the Little League District 11/12 championship title at West Side Rec.
Rotterdam/Carman’s Spencer Pease led off Monday’s best-of-3 finale with a first-pitch round tripper to set the tone for the visitor. A.J. Crux hit another Redick offering over the left centerfield fence for a three-run lead in the top of the fourth inning.
Saratoga’s Evan Ash put one over the fence in the bottom half of the fourth to knot the game at three runs apiece, plating Redick who drove in Jack Ragle after leading off the inning with a double.
Redick almost finished out his start unscathed, but Rotterdam/ Carman starter Jimmy Wilson also took matters into his own hands, hitting a two-out single to drive in Andrew Schraa and A.J. Fasolino for the 5-3 lead in
the top of the sixth and the Schenectady County squad ready to grab the banner.
After leaving the bases loaded in the previous inning and seeing a runner cut down at home the Saratoga blue shirts were down, but not out.
Joshua Delnicki led off the inning against Rotterdam with an infield single before Louis Betit reached on a walk and Orion Lansing proceeded to beat out another close play at first to load the bases.
Michael Mack singled in Delnicki to pull Saratoga within one, 5-4 before Ragle answered the bell once again with an RBI single that put the entire West Side runners in motion and caused quite a commotion.
Betit scored the game-tying run on the base knock with Orion Lansing becoming tangled up with the Rotterdam third baseman heading to and attempting to round third base with the ball in play. Both Lansing and his third base coach ended up colliding and Lansing diving back to third, putting the rally in peril.
With fans for both teams clinging to the fence, shouting, screaming and making their own calls on the play for their cause the delay allowed Saratoga manager Marc Delnicki to talk to Redick before his key atbat.
“Just before that I walked out there when there was a big thing going on (at third base),” Marc Delnicki said. “I said ‘All we need is a single, don’t try to do too much with it’ and then it was gone.”
His heroic blast did little to silence the visiting crowd after he launched a grand slam to deliver the District 11/12 crown for Saratoga as all four elated runners rounded the bases and celebrated at home.
“Owen hits bombs, as you saw,” Delnicki said. “He hits a lot of them, he’s had well over 30 in his Little League career. That’s Owen, he hits hard and that’s fantastic.”
Redick was as cool at the plate as he was with the start Monday night.
“I’m just thinking about putting one in play so the man on third base can get to home,” Owen Redick said. “I was thinking get your own pitch and just drive it. The pitch was right there and just had to sit back and crush it.”
On the mound the reluctant starter, Redick stood and delivered, striking out 10 batters and giving up seven hits in his five innings of work.
“There was a lot of pressure, but I flushed it, I tried not to feel anything, I tried to avoid it,” Redick said. “I was throwing a lot of curve balls and they couldn’t hit it and my fastball was very effective today.”
Redick earned the start after Sunday’s pitching session for the entire Saratoga staff.
“We did bullpens yesterday and we were trying to find the starter for today,” Delnicki said. “One of the boys was having trouble with the strike zone right now, so we said ‘Let’s run bullpen and see how they do.’
“This team had seen Matt (Sgambati) twice already, so I knew the starting pitcher would have to run deep and go through the order a couple times so I figured since they had seen Matt twice I didn’t want them to catch up with him the second time through.
“I went with Owen, he has a good fastball, he’s got a good curve and he was nervous before the game started, let me tell you,” Delnicki said. “He’s been looking really good, his arm was well rested, and we pitched him just a little bit before so his arm was well rested so he went with him.”
Rotterdam starter Jimmy Wilson went the Little League pitch limit in the start, striking out seven and was only touched up by Saratoga on Ragle’s lead-off double in the fourth and Ash’s two-run home run to knot the game at three apiece.
Ragle scored twice and was able to adjust to Wilson after a first-inning pop out to the shortstop.
“Most of the time I just paid close attention to the pitcher and saw what he was throwing,” Ragle said. “After my first at-bat the next couple of at-bats I took advantage of that and just tried to square one up.
The second pitcher I just tried to put one in play.”
He was unfazed with his own late inning demands.
“There was probably an equal amount of pressure, just to not get out and stuff, but there was only one out, so either way Owen would have come up and hit a home run.”
Saratoga will begin section play 2:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon, hosting the District 10/37 (North Country) champions and travel North on Sunday in the best-of-three series. The ‘if necessary’ contest would be hosted by Saratoga at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday.