By Rich Bevensee
With two out and nobody on base in the top of the fifth inning and a four-run lead in their pocket, the top-seeded Taconic Rangers were feeling pretty good about their chances of wrapping up a Diamond Nation championship.
Shouts of “One more!” and “Let’s finish this!” boomed from the Rangers dugout.
But what the Rangers may not have known is that their opponent, Top Level Athletics, came from behind one day earlier to earn a walk-off victory in pool play, and the A’s believed another comeback was imminent.
Sure enough, when Nick Cosselman smoked a two-run single through the middle and Julian Medina beat a throw to the plate to score the go-ahead run. The Athletics had pulled off another miracle.
And when Gianni Fosmire pitched around a leadoff walk to retire the next three batters in the bottom of the fifth, the third-seeded Athletics completed an unlikely 5-4, five-inning victory in the Northeast Championship 15U final on Friday afternoon at ‘The Nation’ in Flemington.
“We’ve won a couple close games this year which has given us a lot of character,” Athletics coach Pete Mackenzie said. “We were down three runs with two outs and nobody on base. If that doesn’t give you confidence later on in your baseball career, I don’t know what does.”
The Athletics, who hail from the city of Rensselaer in upstate New York, finished the tournament on a five-game win streak after losing their opener, 9-0, to the Rangers. The final was an all-New York state rematch of unmatched drama. The Rangers are based in Westchester County.
Cosselman said the team’s motivation to win the tournament got cranked once the A’s walked off Berks County Bulls Black, 7-6, on Thursday in pool play.
“It is really amazing. That experience – being down and coming back – hyped us up to want to win it all more,” said Cosselman, a rising junior at Colonie High in New York.
The comeback against the Bulls also allowed the Athletics to finish pool play with a 3-1 record and qualify for the four-team playoff.
Griffin Durant of the Top Level Athletics was named the 15U Northeast Championship MVP.
Tournament MVP Griffin Durant provided the walk-off hit against the Bulls. After the A’s smothered Richmond County Baseball Club Ghost American, 17-0, in the semifinals, Durant struck again in the final, smoking an opposite-field, two-run double in the seventh to bring the A’s within a run.
Two batters later, Cosselman had his game-winning hit and the Athletics gained their third championship in as many tournament appearances.
“Earlier in the tournament I had a walk-off to get us here. If we had tied or lost that game (against the Bulls), we’d have been going home,” said Durant, a rising sophomore at Shaker High in Latham, N.Y. “This win means everything. We’ve done this already two times. We’ve won every single championship so far this year. We’re rolling.”
The tough luck losing pitcher was Rangers righty Luke Penna, who for 4⅔ innings held the Athletics in check, allowing one run on four hits and one walk to that point.
In the top of the fifth Penna retired the first two Athletics batters before the next five reached safely. A’s hitting machine Ryder Mackenzie got his third hit of the game, Danny Cioffi walked and Durant’s two-run double made the score 4-3.
Julian Medina singled and Cosselman followed with his biggest hit of the season. Penna left after throwing 85 pitches and Sam Brooks recorded the final out in relief.
“Could have been fatigue there, but he pretty much throws five or six innings every time,” Rangers coach Greg Delmonico said of Penna. “They got him a little bit at the end. Maybe too many pitches got too much of the plate.”
Durant had an RBI single off Penna in the first inning to give the A’s a 1-0 lead.
The Rangers, who went 3-1 in pool play and defeated the Wheelhouse Marauders, 9-1, in the semis and took their first lead in the bottom of the third after Athletics starter Cioffi retired the first two batters.
Nick Masillo singled, pinch-hitter Henrik Zwai was hit by a pitch, and Christian Maratos reached on an error to allow Masillo to score and tie the game 1-1. That error would prove costly because the next batter, Tristan Pagliattini, doubled into the left-center gap to drive in two runs, and he later scored on a passed ball for a 4-1 Rangers lead.
Pagliattini doubled twice and leadoff man Masillo had two hits to pace the Rangers offense.
For the Athletics, Cioffi went 2⅔ innings and allowed four runs – all unearned – on three hits and two walks with five strikeouts. Damon Kelly pitched a third of an inning and allowed one hit. Cosselman pitched a scoreless fourth inning and gave up one hit and two walks and struck out one.