The Throgs Neck Little League (TNLL) 12 year old All-Star team began tournament play in District 22 by defending their title with two straight wins. (This same team won the district title as 10 and 11 year olds.)
TNLL played their first game at home on Monday, June 29 versus the City Island LL All-Stars. In the first inning, leadoff hitter Justin DelVecchio (3-3, 3R, 4 RBI, 2B, 2 HR’s) gave an indication of things to come as he hit the first of his two home runs to start the game. Nick Padilla then capped the first inning by hitting a long 2-run HR to give TNLL an early 4-0 lead. Pitcher, Frankie Giuliano started the game and dominated for three innings as he struck out 9 of 10 batters. His only blemish was a leadoff walk in the 1st inning. In addition to his strong lefty arm, Frankie (3-3, 3R, 5 RBI, HR) also carried a big stick as he ended the game with a tremendous grand slam home run over the center field wall and into the houses across the street. The final score was 12-0 in four innings.
After the game, Frankie had his home-run ball signed by all the TNLL players and said that he was bringing it to his all-star teammate and good friend Joe Signore who the team had dedicated the game to. Unfortunately, Joe was hospitalized before the start of the tournament and will most likely miss the remainder of the games. Joe, who broke the HR record at the TNLL this spring, was a key player on the all-star teams in the past and will be truly missed.
For their second game, TNLL traveled to Bronxchester LL to play Coop-City LL on Wednesday, July 1st. TNLL jumped out to a two run lead in the first inning as again Justin DelVecchio (2-2, 2R, 2RBI, HR, 2BB) hit a home run in his first at bat. The game was 2-1 after two innings when Co-op City scored an unearned run. However, TNLL broke the game open in the 3rd inning when they scored 4 runs, highlighted by a triple by Michael Wickes. TNLL then added 2 runs in the 4th inning and 3 more in the 5th inning to close the game out 11-1. The last run was scored by Kyle Mahoney (3-4, 4R, RBI, 2B) and driven in by another walk-off hit by Frankie Giuliano (after fouling off a pitch off his face).
Pitcher Nick Padilla pitched all five innings and was dominant as he gave up only one hit and recorded 12 K’s.
Manager Chris Mahoney said “It was nice to see our players execute some plays that we were working on during our practices as we scored a run on a sacrifice bunt and caught a runner off of third on an attempted steal of second.”
