By The TimesLedger
DAC Texas League
Outback Steakhouse Mets 19. McDonald’s of Bayside 12. In the quarterfinal round of the playoffs, the Mets out-slugged the Cardinals in a roller coaster game to advance to the semifinals.
Both teams set the tone in the first inning with the Mets scoring four runs, two off Joshua Choe’s bases-loaded double. The Cardinals came storming back in the bottom half of the inning with five runs of their own. At the end of these innings, halfway through a scheduled six, the score was tied at 6-6.
With the Cardinals picking up a go-ahead run in the fourth, the Mets’ bats ignited again in the fifth inning with five runs, capped by two RBI doubles by James Cazzola and Tyler Portalatin. But the Cardinals kept pace with five runs of their own with key hits by Daniel Beizer (double), Molloy Karow (two-RBI double) and Anthony Zullo, who drove in the inning’s fifth run and restored his team’s one-run lead as they entered the final inning.
After a key defensive play at first base by the Cardinals’ Corey Mittenthal to get the lead-off batter, the Mets bats couldn’t be stopped, as they batted around the order, with every player getting a hit as they scored eight runs and took a 19-12 lead.
In the Cardinals’ last at-bat, Charles Kassoff started them off with his fourth hit of the game, but then the Mets’ defense stepped up, including Anthony Bradicas’ second big play of the game in the outfield by getting a force out at second. At third base, Joseph Brennan got his glove on a hard-hit ball by Jordan Mittenthal, who was hitting the ball well all game, to get a force out a third.
