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The New York Nine opened the tournament season at the Blue Chip Prospects Great American Classic. Facing The Cage Warriors at Trunzo Field at the Brentwood State Park Athletic Complex, The Nine started Bayside rising Senior Ray Winter. Winter threw two strong innings, striking out four while not allowing a run. The Nine started the scoring in the first inning by loading the bases before a Jean Carlos Morillo RBI groundout and an Albery Pichardo RBI single to give them a 2-0 lead. The bottom of the 2nd saw the Nine strike again after booming doubles to left center by John Garcia and Rey Angeles, Jr. Christian Urbina threw two innings of scoreless relief. Claudio Rodriguez picked up the win by throwing the final three frames, striking out four and walking none while the Nine tacked on the final 3 runs to win 9-0.
Game Two saw the Nine face the Long Island Hawks at the same Trunzo Field. The Nine offense came out hot in the top of the first with ten straight batters reaching base while putting up a twelve-spot in the inning. The highlight being a long 2 RBI double by Reynaldo Angeles, Jr. with Cesar Devarez chipping in two singles in the inning. The 3rd inning saw the Nine tack on three more runs on a Christian Urbina single, a long Steven Santos double to center and a Jesse Spellman RBI single to right. After John Garcia reached on an error, Justin Peralta hit a fly ball single to right scoring Spellman. Joe Wozny picked up the win, firing a run rule shortened complete game, while only allowing a single hit.
The Nine went into day two needing a win to advance to the playoffs and only allow one run or fewer to claim the top seed that came with a bye into the Championship Game. Standing in the way was the New York X and Walton HS RHP Fraini Tejada. The Nine went to Albert Cuello on the mound and he came out firing, striking out the first two batters he faced. After an error and two walks to load the bases, Cuello got a weak ground out to end the inning without a run scoring. The 2nd inning for Cuello saw the defense both desert him and help him. The first batter of the inning walked and the 2nd batter reached on an error. After a HBP to load the bases, Cuello got the strikeout he needed for the first out and got the X leadoff hitter to hit a lazy fly ball to right field and the runner on 3rd faked the tag and the runner on 2nd tagged to go to 3rd. Jean Carlos Morillo threw the ball home to Teo Estevez, who quickly threw the ball to 2nd where the runner was going back to 2nd and Rey Angeles Jr. cut the ball off to throw home to gun the runner trying to score to complete the double play and get the Nine out of another jam.
The top of the 3rd opened with Albery Pichardo legging out an infield single and stealing 2nd on the first pitch. Teo Estevez then came through with a fly ball single to left scoring Pichardo and giving the Nine a 1-0 lead. The bottom of the inning saw the X once again load the bases with one out. This time, the X got a run home on a sac fly and the game was tied at one. Both teams traded zeros in the 4th inning. The 5th inning started with Wilmer Polanco hitting a hard ground ball down the left field line for a double and using his speed to force the issue, advanced to 3rd on a throwing error by the left fielder. Joey Vitiello immediately singled to right on a fly ball, driving in the 2nd run for the Nine. Colin Diez, who came on to start the 4th, baffled the X in his 3 innings of work, only allowing 2 hits as the game ended quietly on a fly out to Pichardo giving the game and the #1 seed in the tournament to the Nine.
The Championship game saw the #1 seeded New York Nine vs the #2 seeded Team Connecticut Blue Jays in what promised to be an excellent game. The Nine started Robert Bradley on the bump and he opened the game quickly with 2 strikeouts and fly ball to left. In the bottom of the 2nd, Jesse Spellman started off the inning with a walk and Justin Peralta smoked a single up the middle. After a strikeout, Teo Estevez worked the count to 3-1 before slicing a double down the line to right scoring Spellman. Bradley made quick work of the Blue Jays in the 3rd with 2 punchouts in the inning. In the bottom of the 3rd, Griffin Arnone singled, Cesar Devarez walked and Spellman walked to load the bases for Justin Peralta. Peralta battled for 8 pitches before smoking a line drive through the 3rd baseman into left field for a 2 RBI single to give the Nine a 3-0 lead they would not relinquish. Bradley would stifle the Blue Jays until the 5th inning when he lost control of the strike zone for a few batters and walked 3 to load the bases with 2 outs. With the bases loaded and the Championship on the line, Bradley bore down and got a critical strikeout on 3 pitches to end the Blue Jays rally. In the 6th, Colm O’Shea relieved Bradley and quickly got 2 ground outs and a strikeout to push the Nine on to the 7th. O’Shea dispatched the Blue Jays in order including a strikeout to end the game and give the Championship to the Nine. Catcher Teo Estevez hit .500/.500/.650 (batting average/on base %/slugging %) with 3 RBI and played excellent defense to earn Blue Chips Tournament MVP.
Tournament Notes:
–Albery Pichardo led the team in the triple slash categories (batting average, on base % and slugging %) with a .667 batting average, .714 OBP and a 1.000 slugging %
–Reynaldo Angeles, Jr. led the team in hits with 5 and doubles with 3 and RBI with 5
–Cesar Devarez led the team in walks with 4 and Devarez and Jesse Spellman tied for the team lead with 4 runs scored
–Joey Vitiello led the team with 3 stolen bases
–John Garcia led the team and saw 5.14 pitches per plate appearance
–Robert Bradley led the team with 8 strikeouts
-The pitching staff had a .29 ERA and struck out 26 in 24 innings
