Exciting finish as Mid-Island 11s win Little League Section 5 All-Star baseball opener

Mid-Island continued its run of close, tense victories in Little League 11-year-old baseball tournament play Friday with an 8-7 victory over Throgs Neck to begin the Section 5 tourney at Great Kills LL.

Mid-Island is back in action Saturday (today) at noon when it opposes District 29 winner Garden City at Rath Park in Franklin Square, L.I. Throgs Neck drops into the losers? bracket and plays Sunday.

Throgs Neck was the home team and had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the sixth with the score 8-7 when M-I reliever Mateo Reyes fired a fastball in the dirt that got by catcher Nick Siciliano.

The receiver raced to the backstop for the ball and made a diving tag on the baserunner to end a dramatic contest that began more than two hours late thanks to the rain and ended around midnight.

?I was surprised to see the runner take off from third, but I?m not complaining,? said Mid-Island manager Justin Doyle. ?It was really a heads-up play by Nick to realize he could make the play himself and did not have to flip the ball the Mateo.?

Once play began, Mid-Island took a quick 5-0 lead.

Nick Zangara ripped a two-run single and Andrew Partnow and starting pitcher Peter Ostensen each drove in a run in a five-run third inning.

Ostensen was lifted after he walked the first two batters in the bottom of the frame, and Throgs Neck scored two runs in the inning to cut the deficit to three runs.

?Peter was doing a great job, but I already had an eye on Saturday?s game if we won, so I had to pull him to keep him eligible (due to pitch count rules),? said Doyle.

Throgs Neck scored four runs in the fourth frame to take a 6-5 advantage, but the locals bounced right back with three runs in the fifth thanks to a two-run double by Partnow.

?That?s why Andrew hits fourth in our order,? Doyle said of his third baseman. ?He always gets good swings and puts his bat on the ball.?

Reyes, who shut down TN in the fourth and fifth innings, ran into some trouble in the sixth, but his batterymate?s diving tag put an end to the evening. ?

Source: http://www.silive.com/youthsports/index.ssf/2013/07/exciting_finish_as_mid-island.html

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