Haller & Haller Bests Modica Pitching
Summer and warm weather must be right around the corner as little league baseball in Queens is now underway with the first games held by the Ridgewood Glendale Middle Village Maspeth circuit at the their opening day Sunday, Apr. 6.
In the minor division, this past weekend, Haller & Haller faced Modica Pitching. James Szala took the ball as the starter for Haller.
After jumping out to a seven run lead, Haller responded resiliently by scoring six of their own to get within one in the second. In that six run inning Jack Cayli started things with a single to center and later in the second he scored the first run for Haller.
With the score 7-6 heading to the third, Haller tapped Joe Pennolino to pitch. He threw two impressive shutout innings and struck out five.
In the bottom of the third, Ryan Regan singled up the middle and later came around to score on a fielders choice from Nicholas Macio to tie the game.
After two quick outs and the game still tied in their half of the fourth, Joseph LaBarbara socked a ball for an inside-the-park home run to give Haller the lead. Following LaBarbara’s homer, Cayli reached safely for the third time and was pinch-run for by Szala.
Szala stole second and third with two outs and then scored what would be the winning run on an errant throw.
In the top of the fifth, Haller turned to LaBabara to close out the game. He surrendered a lead-off triple and the runner later scored, trimming the lead to 9-8.
LaBarbara was able to regain his composure and earn the save by striking out the side while stranding the tying run on third to get the win for Haller.
