Drop Their First After Rattling Off Five Straight
Haller and Haller recently played three games over a six day span and won two of them, losing a walk-off game last Saturday, Apr. 26 to The Cage, 6-5 for their first loss of the season.
On Wednesday, Apr. 23 Haller faced D&A Kitchens. They won a close game 7-5, in a time-shortened, four inning contest.
Seven different players crossed the plate for Haller as Joseph Pennolino, Aidin Dzaferovic, and James Szala, the first three batters in the lineup came around to score in the first.
Stephen Abuso added a run in the third and in the fourth Joseph Labarbara, Jack Cayli and Ryan Regan completed the scoring for Haller and Haller.
James Szala and Joseph Pennolino split the pitching duties, holding D&A to five runs on two hits with eight strikeouts combined.
Last Saturday Haller coach Mike Columbia limited his hurlers to 35 pitches each in preparation for the tight schedule and weekday games. Joseph Labarbara, Ryan Regan and Joseph Pennolino all split the pitching duties for Haller and Haller in anticipation of the short rest.
It was a very tight game and after three innings the score was knotted at one apiece. Pennolino led off the game with an inside-the-park home run, then the Haller bats went silent, until Pennolino got his second hit of the game leading off the fourth and came around to score for a 2-0 lead.
Emmanuel, pitching for The Cage, mowed down Haller batters through four innings, and in the fourth, The Cage scored four runs to take a 4-2 lead.
In the fifth, Ryan Regan doubled and came around to score.
Trailing 5-3 heading into the top of the sixth, Haller scored two to tie the score at 5-5 as Pennolino got his third hit of the game and scored his third run on a double off the bat of James Szala, who would also score when he stole home to tie the game.
With time not on their side, the best Haller could hope for was a tie, but that would not be the case.
After Vinny led off the bottom of the sixth with a triple, Emmanuel singled to left and drove in the winning run for The Cage, handing Haller and Haller their first loss of the season.
On Monday, Apr. 27, Haller and Haller returned to their winning ways with a 13-0 victory over Juniper Elbow. Little League Pitching restrictions were too difficult for Juniper to overcome, as the squad had played just the day before.
On the mound, three Haller pitchers combined for a no-hitter. Joseph Labarbara pitched three innings, striking out five. Benjamin Muratovic made his season debut on the mound and pitched a scoreless fourth. Stephen Abuso, who also made his season debut on the mound, wrapped it up with a scoreless fifth inning.
In the field, Haller played well. James Szala turned an unassisted double play in the top of the first on a liner hit to short, Joseph Pennolino caught a fly ball in center field and Adam Alava threw out two base runners from behind the plate.
On offense, Jack Cayli had two hits and scored two runs, Ryan Regan added a long double to left and Dean Butkiewicz reached base twice and came around to score each time.
Nicholas Macio added a run to the cause and Nicholas Audelo, while making his debut at second base, reached base twice, but was left stranded at third both times.
With this victory Haller and Haller improved their record to 6-1 on the season.
