The Junior Americans limped out of Northville, Mich. with a 1-3 record and their World Series hopes dashed.
The clutch hitting…
By Dylan Butler
The Bayside Yankees strutted into the NABF World Series as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning 21 straight games.
The Junior Americans limped out of Northville, Mich. with a 1-3 record and their World Series hopes dashed.
The clutch hitting that was so apparent last weekend, when the Yankees won the NABF Eastern Regional championship, was nowhere to be found. With Matt McKenna, who leads the team with a .490 batting average with eight home runs and 52 RBIs, hampered by a pulled hamstring, the Bayside bats were silent throughout the tournament.
“He’s really a catalyst and without him we couldn’t put anything together,” said Bayside head coach Joe Kessler. “It’s very frustrating when you go on a win streak, the kids are all pumped up and you’re helpless. You can’t make them hit. They all went into a slump.”
The Yankees’ 21-game winning streak was snapped on the first day of the tournament last Thursday when they fell to the eventual World Series champion Maryland Orioles, 6-0.
Keith Christensen was solid on the mound, allowing just two hits through five innings. The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth, when Christensen issued a leadoff walk and after a two-base error, gave up a two-run single.
The Orioles, who went undefeated in the Maryland regional and finished the World Series with a 6-0 record, added four runs in the top of the sixth inning to put the game away.
Bayside dropped its second game of the tournament Friday, falling to Team Ontario, 5-1. Like their opening game, the Yankees only managed to get two hits.
Ryan Ekberg, who beat Team Ontario 2-1 last month, gave up four hits in six innings. Team Ontario (3-2 in the tournament) scored two runs in the second and scratched across a run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
Mike Testani, who was 6-for-11 and stole seven bases in the World Series, drove in the Yankees lone run in the fourth inning.
In game three Bayside took on the host Northville Broncos, a team that hadn’t won a World Series game in four years, until they played the Yankees.
Bayside (42-10) saw its 2-0 first-inning run erased as the Broncos scored five runs in the second inning as Northville won the game, 9-5 Saturday in the front end of a doubleheader.
Brian Tellish’s three-run home run over the left-field scoreboard broke a 2-2 tie for Northville.
The Yankees tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as Rob Yodice belted a two-run single and Matt Acevedo — who finished third in the King of Swat home-run hitting contest — drove Yodice home.
But Northville responded with four runs in the top of the sixth inning on a combination of walks and hits to put the game away.
Finally, in game four the Yankees snapped the three-game losing streak by defeating the Michigan Rams, 7-3 in the nightcap.
Steve Schult struck out four and gave up four hits in six innings and Christensen pitched a perfect seventh inning for the Yankees.
Mike Testani was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two stolen bases, and Phil Marchese singled home the go-ahead run in the fifth inning.
“Our pitching was pretty good but I thought we would have put up a better performance than that,” Kessler said.
Despite the NABF World Series disappointment, the Yankees can redeem themselves with a solid performance at the Super 10 Series in Marietta, Ga. from Aug. 14-18.
The tournament, hosted by East Cob, is the premier tournament for teams of 16-year-olds, featuring many of the top teams in the country.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
