The District 36 Little League playoffs got underway at the Pantigo fields here Saturday morning as East Hampton’s 9-and-10-year-old all-star team, coached by Chris Carney, Scott Abran, and Chris Diamond, overwhelmed Southampton 15-1.
East Hampton’s 11-12-year-old team played Westhampton at Pantigo the next day, with less pleasing results, though Jason Biondo’s team almost pulled it out in the end, loading the bases with none out and trailing 12-9 — which turned out to be the final score — in the top of the sixth inning.
Southampton used five pitchers during the course of the 9-10 game, which was halted because of the 10-run “mercy rule” after the young Mariners had batted in the bottom of the fifth inning. A coin flip decided the “home” and “away” teams. Southampton won it, but it didn’t matter.
The young Bonackers scored one run in the top of the first inning thanks to a line drive up the middle by Scotty Abran, the cleanup hitter, that scored Casey Carney from third base.
Abran walked the first batter to face him in the bottom half, but struck out the next two. Carney then dropped a fly ball hit to him in center field, but quickly atoned by catching the runner with his relay to Walker Bohnsack at third.
That was as close as Southampton was to get to scoring until its last at-bat.
Meanwhile, East Hampton scored five runs in the second, Ryan Balnis’s line-drive run-scoring double to the center-field fence being the most authoritative hit, and added one in the fourth and eight in the fifth as Carney, Ryan Balnis, Abran, and Kix Bock got r.b.i.s.
Southampton’s run in the bottom of the fifth, scored with Owen Diamond on the mound, was unearned.
The 9-10s were to have played the always-strong North Shore Nationals at Pantigo on Monday, and East Hampton’s 11-12s were to have played the Sag Harbor-Bridgehampton entry at the Bridgehampton Fire Department’s field that day. Adam Wilson, who kept score here over the weekend, said the district tournaments ought to be over by the end of this week.
Getting back to Sunday’s game, Westhampton jumped out to a 7-0 lead, thanks largely to a two-out two-run homer over the center-field fence by Michael Garcia, the cleanup hitter, in the first inning, and a three-run shot over the fence in left-center by Westhampton’s starting pitcher, Romeo Rivas, in the second.
The Bonackers were trailing 10-0 when they finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth. Elias Wojtusiak, the cleanup hitter, doubled to left field in leading off and Finn Alversa drove him in with a base hit. Oskar Merseburg walked and Declan Balnis drove Alversa in with a single of his own. Two outs later, Harry Thomas, the leadoff hitter, drove in Merseburg and Balnis with a two-run single.
Westhampton made it 11-4 in its half of the fourth, and 12-4 in the fifth, but the never-say-die Bonackers went to work in what proved to be their last at-bat. Miles Eckardt, who had been East Hampton’s starting pitcher, drew a full-count walk. The next hitter, Thomas, walked too, after which Luca Biondo doubled in Eckardt from third and Parker Burns beat out a grounder to the right side for 12-6. With runners at the corners, Wojtusiak sent a wicked shot into the outfield for 12-7. Alversa’s soft single over second loaded the bases, still with no outs, for Colton Everett.
Cole Maag, Westhampton’s pitcher at the time, wild-pitched another run in, and when Everett was walked on a 3-2 pitch, the ball got away from the catcher, allowing yet another East Hampton run to score. Clinging to a 12-9 lead, and with runners at the corners, Westhampton’s coaches made another pitching change, bringing in Garcia from first base to close out the win.
The first batter he faced, Declan Balnis, with the count 3-1, lined a shot to right that had it not curled foul probably would have brought East Hampton to within one. Balnis worked Garcia for a walk, loading the bases again, still with no outs, but Garcia struck out Ethan Dodge, Eckardt, and Thomas to salvage the 12-9 win.