FIRST TIME, LONG TIME
Saratoga-Wilton 10U first win over North Colonie propels team to Mid-Atlantic Regional
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The first win is often the most special.
When the first win is against a previously unbeaten opponent in a championship final and your summer continues with your teammates that includes a road trip to New Jersey, there may not be anything better.
For the first time the Saratoga Wilton Youth Baseball Blue Sox got past perennial Cal Ripken Baseball powerhouse North Colonie Tuesday night when it counted most, the Eastern New York State 10U championship game Tuesday night at East Side Rec.
With a 3-1 lead through the first four innings, North Colonie didn’t surprise and mounted a two-run rally in the bottom of the fifth inning to knot the game at three apiece.
Shea Hegarty reached on an error and was replaced by pinchrunner Sean Hurley for speed on the base paths, a walk to Teddy Gialanella and then Kevin Lu set the stage for Nick Mirabile’s twoout double from the No. 9 spot to tie the contest.
The Blue Sox weren’t to be denied as Ben Dalto led off with a single.
“I really had confidence in myself when I was I was on the plate, so I really just wanted to get a hit for our team, for the championship,” Ben Dalto said.
Saratoga Wilton starter, Brady Mills, helped himself with a goahead RBI double to pull ahead, 4-3. Mills would score on Adam Sherman’s own RBI double for
the precious two-run lead heading into the final atbats by the Blue Bison.
With a trip to the Cal Ripken Middle Atlantic Regional hanging in the balance and Mills removed after reaching his allowable pitch count, Saratoga Wilton manager Joe Rigabar had to make some tough decisions.
After North Colonie’s Aiden Guzi led off the bottom of the sixth and final inning with his own double to left field he called upon the left-hander, Dalto to deliver the title.
He enticed the next two Blue Bison batters into infield groundouts, allowing Guzi to score and pull within one, 5-4 before putting two strikes on the heart of the Shaker order.
With his teammates clinging to the dugout fence watching, his fielders anticipating every pitch he managed to put two strikes on his opponent.
The next pitch, so close, but not close enough to end the title game on a called third strike, Dalto reared back and sent the ball over the plate and saw it successful reach his receivers mitt, just below a hefty follow-through by the final Shaker batter.
The Blue Sox were going to the Mid-Atlantic Regional.
“I thought that I could do it, that I really wanted to do it for my team because I knew I had confidence in myself because I was really into it,” Dalto said. “So I just threw the pitch and it was right down the plate.”
Dalto and Mills provided a dynamic tandem at the plate and on the mound with Mills giving up one earned run in his outing to give way to his pair of relievers.
“I felt really good,” Brady Mills said. “I felt like in my heart that I did a pretty good job.”
Then when his team needed him the most, he delivered at the plate in the final frame.
“I just wanted to move the runners over,” Mills said. “I wanted to get into scoring position because I really wanted to get that game winning hit to get the run in.”
The victory over North Colonie was hard-fought and precious, adding to the Blue Sox’s first-time over the North Colonie squad.
“We’ve played them twice earlier in the year and they beat us twice and we knew coming into this tournament that this was a team we were going to have to beat if we were going to win the state tournament and advance to the regionals,” Joe Rigabar said. “We swept through the district tournament; we swept through this tournament, so we hit our stride at the right time.”
With two mercy-rule wins in pool play the Blue Sox pitching staff was ready and fully available for the title game.
“Brady pitched against North Colonie a couple months ago and pitched a great game, we lost 2-0 and I just felt like if he came out and threw strikes and we played good defense, which we typically do, we made a couple of errors early that cost us a run, but I felt he was the right guy tonight,” Rigabar said.
Together for the past three years, including two under the Cal Ripken Baseball banner, the Blue Sox are ready for their first regional in South Plainfield, New Jersey beginning Thursday, July 19.
“Their confident, they’re swinging the bats, throwing strikes, making plays,” Rigabar said. “I think we’re as good as anyone.
“That team we beat tonight is a quality team, a team that probably would have had a really good shot to win that tournament. I feel good about going down there; they’re going to be great teams. I don’t have any expectations other than for us to have fun and play some more baseball.”