Monroe couldn’t sustain it offensive attack enough in its tournament final to avoid its first defeat since early March
The Eagles played the first three innings at a high live before seeing it drop over the game’s final frames. It was the Tottenville bats that came alive enough to hand host Monroe a 9-3 loss on April 30.
“We were really hitting in the first three innings,” Eagles coach Mike Turo said. “I thought we were going to score a lot of runs in this game. We flattened out. We had a couple of bad at bats, which I didn’t like. A couple of kids weren’t working the count and were jumping on the first pitch.”
All was well early on for the Eagles, as exciting back-and-forth action dominated the game’s start. The Pirates’ Alfonse Sadallah, who finished 3-for-4, reached based on a single and later scored as Vincent Timpanelli grounded into a double play. The Eagles would respond in the next inning as Jeremia Bueno pushed in a run with a two-out double to tie the score at 1-1.
“I was telling the guys that we got this and that they aren’t a better team than us,” Bueno said. “Just have fun. Just play your game.”
Tottenvile would respond in the bottom half of the second, as Daniel DiGeorgio would strike back with a two-out double of his own and eventually scored. The Pirates would take a 3-1 lead into the third inning, but the Eagles continued to fight. This time around it was Jason Pineda who would come up big with a two-RBI double, tying the score at 3-3.
The Eagles offense went quit from there.
Monroe would go on to reach base just three more times after the fourth, on just two hits. The Pirates, on the other hand, were just getting started.
Tottenville would put up six runs in the fourth inning, loading the bases twice. DiGeorgio struck again with a bases-clearing double would give back the Pirates control of the game. He went 2-for-3 with four RBI, two doubles and two runs scored.
Monroe would go through three pitchers in the inning, eventually getting out the jam with the help of Jose Vasquez and his mighty fastball.
Offensively, the Eagles couldn’t get the bats going, but Turo believes some minor adjustment will get his team back on track.
“I think we were over-aggressive, swinging at too many first pitches,” he said. “We know their pitchers are control pitchers and we had to make them work a little bit more. We’ll learn from that. Down the road we’ll be hitting the ball, but it’s the smaller things we have to do now. We have to defend the bunt a little bit, watch for the double steals; the little things.”
