Mike House took the hill for Moran Meeker O'Rourke in the top half of the first inning of this morning's District V American Legion Baseball Tournament opener against New Hartford and quickly sat down the Post 1376 hitters on consecutive ground balls. From the looks of things, we were in for a pitcher's duel. New Hartford countered with their veteran righthander, Pat Derrane, so the planets were certainly aligned for a dandy.
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Very quickly the planets went out of alignment and the base paths at Delutis Field became a four lane highway. Moran Meeker clawed out three runs in the bottom of the first inning on two hits, a hit batsman and a throwing error, as Angelo Gonzalez, Holden Coon and Dylan Smith came around to score to give Moran the early lead.
(Moran Meeker's Mike House (10) delivers a second inning pitch.)
Joe Carcone started things off in the top half of the second with a bunt single and was later knocked in on a sac fly by Tim Whalen to pull Post 1376 to within 3-1.
New Hartford got to within 3-2 in the top of the third when Steve Tomaino singled and later scored on an RBI double by Joe Betar.
New Hartford grabbed the lead in the top of the fourth as Eric Verbickas led off with a double and quickly went to third on a passed ball.
Tim Whalen drew a walk and Don Cavoli followed up with an RBI double which scored Verbickas to tie things up at 3-3.
Mike Sezniak's sacrifice fly scored Whalen to make it 4-3 New Hartford. Nick DeCrisi's chopper to short was misplayed by Dylan Smith and Cavoli scored to make it 5-3 New Hartford, which is the way we'd go to the bottom of the fourth.
(New Hartford first baseman Eric Verbickas waits for a pick off throw as Moran's Angelo Gonzalez just gets back in time.)
Pat Derrane got the boys in blue to go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 4th for his quickest inning of the ball game and New Hartford seemed poised to hold the lead.
New Hartford was unable to plate a run in the top of the fifth, leaving Joe Carcone stranded at second base after a long one out double.
Trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth, Moran Meeker-O'Rourke sent 16 hitters to the plate, knocked out 10 hits, drew 2 walks and most importantly plated 11 runs to amass a 14-5 lead.
Dylan Smith, Kyle Campbell and Kyle Armstrong each had not one, but two hits in the big inning for Moran.
Trailing by nine runs after five innings, veteran New Hartford manager John Randall and coach Greg Jones got their troops together and reminded them that they'd been behind before, they'd fought back before and to keep in mind the game was nine innings long and there was certainly a lot of game left.
Showing a ton of heart, New Hartford went out and scored five runs in the visitors half of the sixth.
Don Cavoli and Mike Sezniak got things rolling with consecutive singles and Nick DeCrisi belted a one out double to score both base runners and New Hartford was within 14-7.
(Busy day.....Moran left fielder Dylan VanDreaser bare hands a bouncing ball in the outfield.)
A walk to Joe Betar and a single by Joe Carcone loaded the bases for Erick Verbickas who drilled a double into left center to score two more and pull Post 1376 to within 14-9.
Riley Dixon took over on the mound for Moran. Joe Carcone scored on a passed ball to make it 14-10, which is the way we'd go to the bottom of the sixth.
Holden Coon drew a leadoff walk from New Hartford reliever Tom Roberts and later came around to score on an RBI single by Dylan Smith to make it 15-10, which is the way the top of the sixth would close.
Dixon mowed New Hartford's Cavoli, Sezniak and Tomaino down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh in the quickest half inning of the ball game, just seven pitches.
Moran Meeker exploded for five more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Cody Sullivan, Gonzalez, Dylan VanDreaser, Dylan Smith and Holden Coon all scored to give Moran Meeker O'Rourke the 10 run mercy rule victory.
(Moran's Holden Coon slides into second base on a fourth inning steal attempt as New Hartford's Joe Betar looks to apply the tag. Coon was safe on the play.)
Moran Meeker belted out a whopping 24 hits in this one, while New Hartford had 16 hits of their own!
Holden Coon was 3 for 4 with a single, a double and a triple and 4 RBI's, and Rob Waller was also 3 for 4 with 3 singles and 3 RBI's for Moran Meeker. Four other Moran players had two hits a piece.
Mike House picked up the win for Moran, while Pat Derrane suffered the loss for New Hartford.
Moran moves on the face Whitestown Post, 14-7 winners over Adrean Post, tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. New Hartford will face the loser of Little Falls and Utica Post at 10:00 a.m.
Day One Scores:
District 5 American Legion Baseball
Moran-Meeker O'Rourke 20 New Hartford 10-Story to follow
Whitestown 14 Adrean Post 7
Ilion 9 Smith Post 3
Moran Meeker-O'Rourke 20 New Hartford 10
Box Score
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
New Hartford 0 1 1 3 0 5 0 x x 10 16 3
Moran Meeker 3 0 0 0 11 1 5 x x 20 24 2
