NEW YORK STATES OF MIND FOR UTICA POST 07/26/10
POST 229 WINS DISTRICT 5 CROWN ROLLS PAST WHITESTOWN 13-2
FRED MILLER/PHOTOS JEFF PEXTON
It was a bumpy road that Utica Post (24-10) traveled to end up with a shot at a trip to the upcoming New York State American Legion Baseball Tourney next week in Newburgh. Bumpy indeed. After five days of competition and who knows how many hours, or outs, Utica Post is indeed packing their bags for Newburgh as 2010 District Five Champs.


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After a twenty minute intermission, it was mission accomplished for Utica Post 229, as the boys in blue and white left no doubt about who should be traveling south. The District Five Championship was the first for Utica Post since 2002.

Utica Post never let Whitestown come up for air and cruised to what looked like a preordained 13-2 win over a shocked, but game, bunch of Whitestown Post (21-7) players. If you were present at DeLutis on Sunday you sort of knew how the second of two would turn out.

Before the first pitch was fired with purpose, a feeling of elation emanated from the Utica Post side of the diamond, while a quiet sense of impending doom wove its way through the Whitestown side.

Momentum is a big part of organized sports and momentum certainly sat in the Utica Post dugout. Despite having to play parts of three games in one day, Utica Post players raced onto the field with a sense of purpose and a lot of pep in their step.





















(Utica Post piles on to celebrate win that sends them to NYS tourney.)

If you factor in the quality of opponents, rain delays, number of innings and comebacks Utica Post had to mount in the five days the tourney traversed, you would think Utica Post would be running on empty. Not the case, not the case at all.

When his team had wracked up 13 runs and 13 hits in just five innings to clinch another ticket to states, manager Greg Gaeta stood in the middle of the DeLutis diamond and talked to me about just how proud he was of this team.

Proud of how much effort went into just physically playing almost three games in one day to win it all, "We were here at nine o'clock this morning and it's six o'clock now. That's 9 hours. Long day for the kids," said Gaeta.

The longtime manager was especially proud of his worn out pitching staff who's members had to battle back from the Losers Bracket, after a loss to Ilion, to win it all. Gaeta said, "We played just one inning last night and we brought back the same pitcher, Ryan Alesandro. We brought him back this morning and he did a great job.. today he gave up the one homerun and then held them in check the rest of the way.... He did a fantastic job... He wanted the ball... he asked if he could pitch this game."

Pitch he did. Alesandro went the distance, in the mercy rule shortened game, yielding just 3 hits, allowing only two runs, striking out 1.





















(Ryan Alesandro delivers a pitch and a big win for Utica Post.)

The help that his high powered offense offered up made Alesandro's job that much easier. Utica Post broke open a competitive game scoring 9 runs, combined in the fourth and fifth innings to make short work of Whitestown.

Speaking of Whitestown, it was the Gold Division champs who had their Blue Division champs feeling blue after they jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead.

Dan Smith got the nod for Whitestown, while Alesandro had the honors for Post 229. After a Mike King single, Dan Smith struck out the next two batters to end a strong top half of the first. The bottom half of the frame was even more fun for Whitestown Post.

Mike Sullivan, Whitestown's table setter, did just that as he worked out a walk. Just seconds later, Mike Bunal hit his second homerun in two days, a long bomb to straight away center, to put his team up 2-0 to earn himself two quick runs batted in.

The aftershock of the longer homer didn't last long as Alesandro got the next three batters to pop out and end the inning without further damage. Alesandro got stronger as the game moved on, not allowing only a bloop single to Ryan Watson after Mike Bunal's second inning tater.





















(Dan Smith deals for Whitestown Post.)

Problem is, Dan Smith did not handle prosperity well. Staked to a quick two run lead, Smith had trouble finding the plate, then got into trouble, as Utica Post touched him up for three runs to take the lead and suck the life out of the Whitestown cheering section.

Vin Gaetano did what he did all tourney long, singling to left. That safety was followed by another laser to left off the bat of Mike Obernesser and the pressure was on just like that.

A walk to Gary McConnell loaded the sacks with Utica Post runners and just a blink of an eye later, Smith hit batter Justin Hall and earned Hall an RBI for taking one for the team. It was now 2-1 Whitestown.

Guess what happened next? Smith hit the next batter, Mike Lackey, to force home the game tying second run, scored by Mike Obernesser.

Matt Scotellaro got the game winning RBI the old fashioned way, by ripping a single to left to score McConnell to make it 3-2 and Utica Post never looked back. Mike Lackey scored run number four.


















(Members of Post 229 team hoist D5 hardware as they get set for states.)

In fact, it was all systems forward as the hits and runs really piled up in innings four and five.

Mike Scotellaro started the four run fourth with a single to left and later scored UP's fifth run. It was 8-2 when the frame came to an end.

Five runs in the next at bat led to the game being shortened to five innings with the mercy rule.

A double by Mike King and a RBI two bagger by, the suddenly hot, Mike Scotellaro were the highlights of the big inning. Oh, let's not forget Gary McConnell's two run single.

It was 13-2 and a quick bottom of the fifth ending with a strike out by Alesandro of Mike Bunal put this one to rest and started the packing process for the 2010 D 5 champs from Utica Post.

Utica Post ended up with a tournament record of 5-1 while Whitestown wrapped up the tourney at 3-1.

Congratulations to all the teams who made the 2010 District Five Tournament one we won't soon forget. Good luck to Utica Post in Newburgh and we hope your journey is one you'll remember for a long time.

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