Kiwanis Club Wins NE Little League Crown
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Kiwanis Club baseball team of NELL won their Championship Saturday afternoon against a determined and equally matched foe in Mama Lupo's.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Mama Lupo's deserved to be playing in the Championship game after battling through the losers bracket and set up the classic showdown with a 15-4 win over the eventual league Champion Kiwanis in a 9:00AM qualifier.
Kiwanis Club could have fired up the grills at home for a championship celebration lunch with a win in the morning but Mama Lupo's wouldn't go away so easily.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Once the stage was set for the Championship, the runs kept coming in the afternoon affair until it was knotted at 6-6 in the third inning and the tension was rising.
Every out drew a collective sigh of relief from the capacity crowd.
Nick Murphy who was pitching for Kiwanis came to bat in the bottom of the third with no outs and hit a single to right field, stole second and went to third on a passed ball. Three consecutive good defensive plays by Mama Lupo's left him stranded with the score still 6-6.
Then in the top of the fourth Mama Lupo's threatened with two men on, but a pop out by Ben Poirier and a ground out back to the pitcher put and end to the scoring threat.
Derrick Lambert of Kiwanis hit a double to left in the bottom of the fourth but he too was left stranded when a line shot back to Stone Manczak who was pitching for Mama Lupo's was knocked down but not caught by Manczak who calmly picked it up turned to first and made a perfect throw for the third out.
Mama Lupo's Seth Bartkowiak who was three for three in the Championship singled in the top of the fifth but was again left stranded after the third out.
Manczak struck out Trevor Slicker for the first out in the bottom of the fifth before reaching his pitch limit and finished with six strikeouts and gave up five earned runs on eight hits.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Andrew Lambert came to the plate and drilled a line drive to the gap in right center and nearly went on to score when the throw to third was bobbled, but with one out his coach held him at third.
Shane Paul stepped to the plate and hit a hard grounder to shortstop who then made the play at first for the second out but Lambert came home on the routine sacrifice play and put Kiwanis up 7-6.
Mama Lupo's had one more chance in the top of the sixth as the tension was thick and rising. Nick Murphy was pitching for Kiwanis and gave up a single to the first batter before reaching his pitch limit and had to relinquish his duties on the mound to Shane Paul.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Paul was a bit nervous to say the least as he tried to find the strike zone with his warm up pitches. The heart of the Mama Lupo's team line up was coming up. On four straight pitches Paul walked Matt Konger to put runners on first and second, then Ben Poirer stepped to the plate.
Paul was sweating bullets as he threw two balls to Poirier then a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third. The next pitch was another ball to load up the bases and put the game squarely on the shoulders of Paul who was visibly shaken by the dire situation.
"I can't do it," he murmured towards his coach in the dug out and began walking off the field.
His coach, Nic Schabel met him on the third base line and put his arm around him with encouragement and said, "Just relax, you can do this, just go back out there and play catch with your catcher."
Paul went back to the mound, wiped the sweat from his brow and settled in with much support from the crowd and stared down the batter with bases loaded and no outs.
His first pitch was low and inside but it caught the corner for a called strike. His first strike after eight straight balls had a swift effect on Paul as his demeanor quickly seemed confident. The next pitch was another strike and the batter Nick Jarvis fouled it off for strike two. The next pitch was a bit high but the batter was anxious to connect and swung and missed for strike three.
Paul then had a little jump to his step but he knew the next batter was Mama Lupo's clean up hitter Stone Manczak who pointed his bat towards the Independence Bridge when he settled in the batters box.
Paul threw another high but tempting pitch that Manczak envisioned sailing over the fence as he swung for strike one.
"Throw him the hard one right down the middle now Shane," someone yelled from the crowd. As if channeling that thought, Paul did just that with a screaming fastball that came in low across the plate for a called strike two. Paul challenged Manczak with the next pitch at belt level that got by Manczak's swinging bat for strike three.
Paul had a skip in his step although bases were still loaded but now he had two outs.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Tucker Dylan was next up and Paul was now throwing strikes. Dylan swung at two and was frozen by the last one as he went down looking at strike three.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Paul lifted both hands to his head, one with his glove in stunned disbelief as his team just won the North East Little League Majors Championship.
When asked after the game what he thought when he loaded the bases, Paul replied, "I thought, Oh my God, I'm in trouble."
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
Then we asked how it felt after the third strikeout? "I wanted to faint," was his honest, excited, happy reply as he clutched the game ball.
Fortunately for both these teams they will keep playing as they will be representing NELL against SELL in the County Tournament that starts on Wednesday at NWLL Defoe park at 5:45PM.
Congratulations to Kiwanis Club NELL Champs and runners up Mama Lupo's.
(MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy) color="Purple"> (MyBayCity Photo by Kevin Leahy)
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