Announcement

Rebels Repeat at BBH Columbus Day Wood Bat

Posted by Mike Conry on Oct 12 2011 at 07:40AM PDT in 2011 Fall
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Yaphank, NY – With temperatures reaching above 80 degrees during this past weekend in October you could fairly say it was hot – almost as hot as the North Bellmore North Merrick Rebels. For the second time in as many years, NBNM are the champions of the Baseball Heaven Columbus Day Wood Bat Tournament. The Rebels finished with a perfect 6-0 record, the result of mostly dominating performances in which they totaled forty runs scored while allowing just two.

This year’s tournament featured fifteen participants from throughout the region including select teams from Medford, Port Jefferson, Southold, Cutchogue, Bayside, Bronx, Pleasant Valley, Connecticut and Montreal. One might have thought the 11U all-stars from North Bellmore North Merrick Little League had their work cut out for them.

The Rebels opened up on a warm and sunny Saturday morning against the Montreal Bucs. Looking to jump-start their tournament record, North Bellmore North Merrick sent ace Brian Porricelli to the mound. While Porricelli controlled the Bucs batters, NBNM’s offense was busy throughout their lineup. With the game well in hand, Porricelli was lifted for Jack Delaney in the fourth inning who had no troubles closing this one out and sending the Canadians to an early shower as the Rebels defeated the Bucs 12-1 by run-rule.

As fate would have it, game two in the pool round pitted cross-town rivals NBNM and the Massapequa Coast Cyclones. Rebels’ starter Nick Valeriano sat the Cyclones down in order in the first. In the Rebels’ half, after their inning was extended by a Coast error in the infield, NBNM took advantage with RBI singles by Porricelli and Nick Valeriano. From there on out this one was a duel of pitching and defense — including a wicked 8-to-3 assist from center fielder Porricelli — with the Rebels holding on 2-0 in the complete-game victory for Valeriano.

Day two started early with NBNM facing the LI Lookouts for an 8:00 a.m. matchup. The story of this game was Keven ‘K-Mac’ McCleneghan who proceeded to own the Lookout lineup. McCleneghan featured a popping fastball spotted with great control and mixed in just enough of a very effective off-speed pitch to keep the Lookouts mostly off-balance and frustrated. Any balls the team based in Port Jefferson did manage to put in play were gobbled up by the Rebels ‘D’. Meanwhile, NBNM’s offense as a whole was efficient and effective while pushing across nine runs. Delaney again came on, this time with two innings of work, to close the 9-0 victory and the Rebels were rolling through pool play with a record of 3-0.

In the final game in the Rebels’ pool round, they lined up against the Smithtown Diamondbacks. NBNM starting pitcher Alec Acri was called upon to go as long as he could in this one in an effort to preserve as much remaining pitching as possible for the likely next game or games on play-off Monday. He fulfilled that expectation to the utmost by going the distance. While Acri and the Rebels defense mostly kept the D’backs off the board, the NBNM offense put it to the Smithtown team. The Rebels invoked the run-rule with an RBI single by McCleneghan in the fifth inning, a complete-game for Acri, and an 11-1 final.

Having gone 4-0 in their division of pool play with 34 runs-for and 2 runs-against, the Rebels were understandably feeling pretty good about their chances for top seed in the play-offs. They found out Monday, though, that the Bronx Bombers with 20 runs-for and 1 run-against were the #1 seed bumping NBNM to #2 and a semi-final match with the #3 LI Breakers.

The Rebels starting pitcher for the semi-final play-off game was Michael Proios. He had to deal with a rough patch right from the get-go when his own error led to a bases-loaded, one-out jam. When Proios fell to three balls to the Breakers’ five-hitter, he had no choice but to throw a hittable pitch. What looked to be a soft line drive single up the middle was snared by a diving Delaney at shortstop who proceeded to ‘swim’ and tag second base with his glove to double up the baserunner and end the inning and the threat with a sparkling display of defense and ‘heads-up’. Delaney proceeded to provide numerous assists throughout this game. Proios got stronger as the game proceeded, added velocity to his fastball, effectively changed speeds and locations, and stymied Breakers batters. The Breakers pitching, as well, was very effective and kept things knotted at 0-0 into the fourth inning. A long double by Porricelli in the fourth opened things up for the Rebels who plated three runs in the inning. Proios took control from there with an impressive complete-game victory, 3-0, sending the Rebels into the tournament final.

The Rebels then watched the final innings of the Bronx Bombers dispatching the LI Braves on field #5, 7-1, and the championship matchup between the Rebels and Bombers was set. With the Bombers and Rebels each having allowed just two runs through their five games en route to the final, there was no denying the prowess of the pitching and defense that these two teams had to offer. But no one could have predicted what came next.

With the sun setting down and the field lights coming up, the Bombers and Rebels began an epic battle.

The starting pitcher for the Bronx was dominant. Porricelli, starting for NBNM, was hurling lights-out gas. And so it was through three innings.

While they were few and far between, even when batters appeared they may have gotten the better of a pitcher, the defenses made outstanding plays. Rebels second baseman Alec Acri made a terrifc play up the middle on his backhand in the third that thwarted the Bombers’ effort to get things going offensively. When the Bombers managed a shot into the gap in left-center with one out in the fifth, the hitter and everyone watching were thinking double all the way. But center fielder Kevin McCleneghan tracked it down and threw a strike to second where Acri applied the tag for the second out. In the Bombers next at-bat, on what looked like a clean single through the middle, McCleneghan fired to first to assist yet another stunning 8-to-3 put-out to end the inning.

The Bombers, as well, provided flawless defense to keep the Rebels offense down and the score remained tied at 0-0 through the regulation six innings.

With Porricelli out, having reached his pitch count after yielding just two hits, Valeriano came on in relief. Coming off his complete game against the Cyclones and so limited for pitches, Nick needed to be economical. He established his off-speed pitch early that had Bombers batters out in front and Rebels third baseman Matt Conry on his toes with assist after assist to McCleneghan, now playing first base, who made several athletic put-outs. With the Bronx starter still in, he and Valeriano threw out-for-out until the Bombers went to their bullpen in the eighth. Much to the Rebels chagrin, the relief pitcher from the Bronx threw as hard or harder than their starter and had a nasty curve ball to go with the heat. The pitchers dueled and the defenses shined — including another outstanding, hit-robbing play up the middle by Acri — through an incredible ten scoreless innings. With the Rebels’ Valeriano brilliantly pitching to contact, he had used only 36 pitches coming into the bottom of the eleventh.

The Bombers then managed a clean lead-off single that lifted their team to fever pitch, desperate to grab the momentum that hung in the balance and push across the winning run. Valeriano, remaining composed for the next batter, looked in to catcher Michael Proios, came set, then spun with a throw to McCleneghan picking off the baserunner, deflating the Bombers and amping up the Rebels. Nick proceeded to get the next two outs moving the 0-0 tie to the twelfth.

Leading off the top of the inning, Eric Solomon, after working the count to his favor 2-0, slashed a hard single to center to give the Rebels a huge spark. Matt Nilsen, after two such attempts by the Rebels had failed earlier, laid down a text-book sacrifice bunt that moved Solomon into scoring position. When Delaney stepped in at the top of the order, the Bombers pitcher, perhaps now showing some signs of nerves and fatigue, bounced a wild pitch past his catcher allowing Solomon to get to third. With one out and a 1-0 count on the batter, Solomon broke for home with the pitch as Delaney squared for the suicide squeeze. Jack got it down, Solomon slid in safe on a bang-bang play at home and the scoreless tie was finally broken. After McCleneghan and Porricelli reached to load the bases, with two out, a full count, and the runners in motion, Valeriano chased a high-and-inside fastball for strike three. But the pitch got away from the catcher, and Valeriano, without hesitation, broke for first. Nick and the high throw arrived together, the ball sailed toward right field and both Delaney and McCleneghan scored.

The Rebels took a 3-0 lead into the bottom half. With Proios flashing signs in his twelfth inning behind the plate, Valeriano, in his sixth inning of relief work, threw just eight pitches in sitting down the Bombers 1-2-3 and propelling the Rebels to the well-deserved tournament title.

Despite some ill feelings between the teams throughout the earlier portions of this game, when this was over, both players and coaches expressed respect and admiration for their opponents and even took a group photo together.

At the awards presentation — about 3 and-a-half hours after the game began — the Baseball Heaven official acknowleged and congratulated the teams for having participated in “the longest game in Baseball Heaven history.”

This concluded a fantastic three-day weekend that surely adds even more hues to the already colorful book of memories being written by this special group of players and families.

The Rebels next take the field in a double-header against the Roslyn Bearcats Sunday 10/16 starting 1:00 p.m. at Gunther Field.

Comments

2011-10-12T07:48:15.000-07:00October 12 2011, at 07:48 AM PDT, Mike Conry said:

This was from Coach Bob Monday night…

From: Bob Delaney <bobdelaney7@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 11:36 PM
Subject: Congratulations
To: Sam Acri <SDMS28@aol.com>, Al Coster <ACoster@bandcllp.com>, Chris McLenaghan <cemcclen@optonline.net>, Mike Nilsen <mnilsen@nyaes.com>, Bill Poricelli <billpmusic@optonline.net>, George Prios <proiosg@optonline.net>, Brian Solomon <solomon3@optonline.net>, ray valeriano <rayroetoni@aol.com>, Mike Conry <michael.j.conry@gmail.com>
Cc: Dan McAdam <danno229@optonline.net>

Just wanted to take a minute to congratulate the kids and the coaches for an epic win tonight at BBH. The amount of focus it took for the kids to get through a 12 inning game without making an error is quite an accomplisment. Our team defense and pitching this weekend was amazing.

I told the kids in the dugout that this would be a game they would tell there kids about someday. I am prouid to have been a part of it.

This team has accomplished alot so far but I think that final game tonight shows that the possibilities are endless as to what this team can do when we play the kind of ball we’re capable of.

We ran out of there pretty quick after the game so if you could pass this on to the boys I would appreciate it.

Thanks to Sam for pushing all the right buttons today.