By Will Harrigan
On one hand, the last days of August can be trying.
A long summer of baseball is winding down, the sun is going down earlier, the nights are cooler.
But on the other hand, when your team reaches a 20-game winning streak over the weekend like C.B. Futures did, there’s the feeling of wanting to play as long as you can.
The summer is over for the Futures, but not after ending their summer with 22 straight wins and a championship. They would cap off the Summer Finale – in their summer finale – with a hard fought, 3-2 victory over Eastern Elite Baseball NE in the 14U Black Bracket final on Sunday evening at Diamond Nation.
Dalton LoGuidice – a right-hander with control of the zone all night – earned MVP honors for the Futures. The tournament champions from the Syracuse area outscored their opponents 39-8 in rolling to a 5-0 record over the weekend.
“Twenty-two wins in a row. What an unbelievable run,” said Futures coach Scott Cassidy. “We’ve been on a roll lately, and to have this kind of success speaks to the kind of kids we have. We try to come to Diamond Nation once a year and what a great reward this is for our kids to win it.”
The winning run came in highly exciting fashion, as C.B. Futures outfielder Jace Albero hit a ball deep into the right-center field gap for an inside-the-park home run. His slide into home plate barely beat the throw to break a 2-2 deadlock in the fourth inning and it turned out to be the decisive run.
Leading off the game, LoGuidice tripled into the right-center field gap. A wild pitch would score him, and Augie Jones – who had drawn a walk earlier in the inning – also scored on a wild pitch to boost the lead to 2-0.
LoGuidice would have a rough first inning that would allow Eastern Baseball to draw level.
Colton Simas and Griffin Frenze started the rally with a walk and single, respectively, setting the table for Rhode Island-based Eastern. Two batters later, and after a wild pitch moved the runners to scoring position, shortstop Brett Knight belted a double down the left field line to score both runners.
Dalton Loguidice of C.B. Futures was named 14U Black Summer Finale MVP.
But from there, LoGuidice would take command on the mound, tossing six scoreless innings, including striking out the side in order to close the game in style in the seventh.
Eastern Elite would move a runner to third with two outs in the third, but LoGuidice induced a strikeout to strand the runner.
“He got into some trouble early, but he got stronger as the game went on,” said Cassidy. “I wasn’t going to send him out for the seventh but he asked me to go out there. The deal was if one guy got on, he was out.”
Players on the Futures squad will now prepare for their high school seasons. Cassidy hopes his players will reap the benefits from travel ball.
“We work tirelessly on fundamentals, and these guys all have the ability to play,” said Cassidy. “I think everyone is excited to see how it translates to the next level.”