A STEP CLOSER
The Mid-Island Little League of Staten Island is one win away from a berth in the Little League World Series.
Chris Cancel had a two-run double to highlight a three-run third inning and lead Staten Island to a 5-2 victory Wednesday over the team from Middletown, N.J., in the Mid-Atlantic Regional in Bristol, Conn. The win puts Staten Island in the regional final Saturday night (7 p.m., ESPN) against an opponent yet to be determined.
Greg Bruno, also a star pitcher, sparked the third-inning rally with a double. Steven Martinez followed that with a single. After a walk, Cancel hit his two-run double.
“Anytime you win a game it’s great,” Staten Island coach Joe Calabrese said in a phone interview. “Especially in a tournament like this, you know? Goals: We’re trying to get to Williamsport [for the World Series] and we’re one step closer now. We go out, we try to take one game at a time. We play our game, and if we play our game we’re pretty tough team to beat. We got ourselves in a pretty good position now.”
New Jersey nearly rallied in the sixth, scoring a run and putting a couple of runners on, but Staten Island managed to slam the door, improving to 3-0 in the regional.
“We haven’t had a lot of close games,” Calabrese said. “And they showed a little bit of excitement. Usually they don’t show that excitement. But it was kinda a tight game today and we were on our heels a little bit, and we dug down and we got it done. I think games like this are good for us, as we’ve continued to move forward. You wanna play tight games and come out on top of those games. And we did that.”
New Jersey, which fell into the losers’ bracket, will next play Friday against the winner of Thursday’s Pennsylvania-Maryland game. The winner of Friday’s game will face Staten Island on Saturday. Staten Island will have Bruno, its ace, on the mound.
Calabrese described himself as, “extremely confident” in a group with a core that has been together for three years, training with the local football team during the offseason and working towards this goal. Now, it’s so close his players can taste it.
“They want it,” he said. “They’re hungry. They play hard. They don’t wanto to lose. ... They don’t want to go home. They want to keep marching. So I’m extremely confident. We got our guy on the mound and we’re ready to go.”