The quarter finals and semi finals were played, leaving only two teams for the one coveted cup. The last of the championships to be won this year might be decided this weekend here in the finals. One team has reestablished their glory from the further past while the other looks to recapture what they felt was theirs all along. It’s all or nothing for the MLSB title and the seeds couldn’t be more ideal:
#2 Pelham Village Wine (12 – 4) vs #1 Raging Bulls (13 – 3)
These two squads had rather different roads to their finals berths. For the Wine, they narrowly captured victory from the jaws of defeat in their opener as a 7th inning homerun by the winning pitcher Greg MacKoul set up a 12th inning walk off by old teammate Jon Hopkins to put them into the Semi-Final game. In that match, Joe Battaglia gave his squad their first run before the winning run in the 7th came on a bases loaded hit-by-pitch against their old rivals. Now, with their place made in the last round of the playoffs, the Wine look to take it back home Saturday morning against the Raging Bulls. For the Bulls, it appeared to be business as usual until they faced their own adversity. Their opening victory came seemingly easily as they put up 9, giving Jim Wendling the opportunity to gain the win on his strong 7 innings. The second game went back and forth, where the Bulls came back from 6 down twice, wiping out the lead with a grand slam from Anthony Pogioreale, returned down by 1 in extra innings off the bat of the winning pitcher Joe Annoscia, and won it in the 11th with a 2 run shot by Jim Wendling. They fought hard and battled to get to this point against a nemesis of yore that they had success facing earlier this season. However, the Wine have shown an incredible amount of resolve, excellent pitching, poise, and good fortune. They appear to be quite ample to win the whole thing, giving them 2 this year. It will all be decided Saturday morning at Murray Street Middle School in the championship round.
#2 Pelham Village Wine (12 – 4) vs #1 Raging Bulls (13 – 3)
These two squads had rather different roads to their finals berths. For the Wine, they narrowly captured victory from the jaws of defeat in their opener as a 7th inning homerun by the winning pitcher Greg MacKoul set up a 12th inning walk off by old teammate Jon Hopkins to put them into the Semi-Final game. In that match, Joe Battaglia gave his squad their first run before the winning run in the 7th came on a bases loaded hit-by-pitch against their old rivals. Now, with their place made in the last round of the playoffs, the Wine look to take it back home Saturday morning against the Raging Bulls. For the Bulls, it appeared to be business as usual until they faced their own adversity. Their opening victory came seemingly easily as they put up 9, giving Jim Wendling the opportunity to gain the win on his strong 7 innings. The second game went back and forth, where the Bulls came back from 6 down twice, wiping out the lead with a grand slam from Anthony Pogioreale, returned down by 1 in extra innings off the bat of the winning pitcher Joe Annoscia, and won it in the 11th with a 2 run shot by Jim Wendling. They fought hard and battled to get to this point against a nemesis of yore that they had success facing earlier this season. However, the Wine have shown an incredible amount of resolve, excellent pitching, poise, and good fortune. They appear to be quite ample to win the whole thing, giving them 2 this year. It will all be decided Saturday morning at Murray Street Middle School in the championship round.