Brady Finn with a walk-off single for his 3rd hit of the game and Team Francisco captures the 12u American Columbus Day Championship @EcybTournaments pic.twitter.com/X8TJkkhNJa
Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 9, 2023
What a game!
Team Francisco Select overcame an early 4-0 deficit to defeat the New York Longhorns by the score of 6-5 to capture the 12u American Columbus Day Tournament.
In the top of the first inning, the Longhorns immediately got on the board with an RBI single by Connor Fierro which was misplayed in left field and allowed two runs to score. Two batters later, Vincent Vargas ripped a two-run single, which was misplayed in center and right away it was a 4-0 deficit.
Things did not look great at that moment for Team Francisco, but they never wavered.
In fact, they answered back in the bottom of the second inning when Murad Oranzia led off with a walk and he stole second. After a ground to shortstop got him to third base, he scored on an infield single to third to make it 4-1. They were not finished as Aiden Recio drew a walk and Julian Sultana executed a perfect bunt to reach safely. After a strikeout, a run scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-2, and an RBI single by Brady Finn made it 4-3. That was the first of three different RBI hits that he had. The inning came to a close on a pop out to first base my Robby Reyes.
The Longhorns did not score in the top of the third despite a one-out double by Jake Adragna and he advanced to third on a wild pitch but a comebacker and a fly out to right field ended the inning.
In the bottom of the third, Team Francisco’s bats went back to work starting with a one-out single by Jacob Font. Murad Oranzia ripped an RBI double to tie the game and the Longhorns made a pitching change.
In the top of the fourth inning, Carson Bayer hit a single to right field and stole second base to get himself into scoring position. After a walk and a flout, Chris Normile came through with an RBI double to make it 5-4 in favor of the Longhorns. Team Francisco made a pitching change, bringing in Font to put out the fire – which he did on an infield pop out to shortstop.
After a quiet bottom of the fourth inning, Longhorns had a chance to extend their lead in the fifth, but they stranded Fierro on second base after he hit a two-out double.
In the bottom of the fifth, Team Francisco was able to tie the game when Krish Sud reached on an E1 and stole second base. Brady Finn came through again with an RBI single to make it 5-5.
The Longhorns were hoping to regain the lead in the top of the sixth inning, especially after a leadoff hit by Vargas, but they were unable to scratch the run across as the next three batters were retired.
In the bottom of the sixth, needing just one run, Team Francisco got off to a great start with a leadoff double by Noah Fernandez. After a walk and a sac bunt put runners at 2nd & 3rd with 1 out, an infield pop out and a ground out to third ended the inning.
The game would go to extras, with no limitations being it is a championship game. Longhorns got a two-out single by Simon Morawski but the next batter was retired.
In the bottom of the seventh inning with 8-9-10 coming up in the order, Team Francisco was looking to flip the lineup over. After the first two batters were retired it didn’t appear they would be able to do that, but a two out walk but Sultana brought up Bogoty who hit a single and Krish Sud drew a walk to load the bases. The dangerous Brady Finn came up and on the first pitch, he came through and ripped the walk-off RBI single to center to send the home team into a frenzy.
It was a throughly enjoyable game to watch and it is a shame that someone had to lose.