The following article was written by Ryan Driscoll, head coach of the Monroe U11 Little League All-Stars.
On Friday night the Monroe 11u All-Stars took on Wallingford at Peter J. Foley Stadium in an elimination game. The winner would move on to a winner-take-all championship game versus Simsbury also in Naugatuck.
We won the Friday night game 6-2. Dylan Chap got the start on the mound. Dylan is not always the most vocal kid, but he’s extremely smart and understands the game. He and I spoke before the game and we talked about letting them hit the ball and allowing our defense to do the work and he did just that.
It was one of my favorite performances by a little leaguer since I’ve been coaching. He pitched a complete game in 68 pitches (which is almost unheard of at this age) allowing only 2 runs and walking only 1 batter. He also had the go ahead single with 2 RBI (discussed below) in the 4th inning.
Other highlights from the game:
- In the top of the first inning, Wallingford’s No. 3 hitter, Cam Hodder, ripped a bullet between short and third that looked like it was headed toward left field. Colin Driscoll made a highlight reel backhanded diving catch to get the out. Chap then struck out the next batter to end the inning and keep Wallingford off the board.
- After Wallingford scored in the top of the second, in the bottom of the inning, Harrison Grant (Monroe’s catcher) hit a double to deep left center field. He came around to score two batters later when Ewan MacLean (Monroe’s right fielder) singled to right, driving him in.
- In the top of the fourth inning, with a runner on first and one out, Monroe’s left fielder, Brandon Glick, just missed snagging a line drive on a diving play, but he quickly popped up and threw a strike to third base to get the advancing runner, which was key, because Wallingford got a hit and scored on the next play, but was limited to only one run to go up 2-1 after four innings.
- In the bottom of the fourth, down 2-1, Glick singled, Derek Flynn walked, and Ewan Maclean walked. Chap then hit a hard line drive to right field, knocking in two runs to put Monroe up for good.
- After Chap held Wallingford in the top of the fifth, getting out of the inning on eight pitches, Mac Fink singled in the bottom of the fifth to bring in Vinny Franzago and Colin Herlihy to put Monroe up 5-2. Monroe scored one more run on an error by Wallingford to go up 6-2.
- Chap then shut Wallingford down in the sixth for the complete game victory.
Saturday evening was the championship game against Simsbury, who beat us in sectionals last year and then won the section. They are a very disciplined team and we knew it would be tough to score runs. But we had Mac Fink pitching and he had been our best pitcher throughout the districts and sectionals and every team, including Simsbury, had difficulty with Mac.
We ended up losing 2-1. Mac pitched great. He pitched 4.2 innings, only gave up 1 earned run, 4 hits and struck out 7. Simsbury got one run off of him in the first inning and then one in the fourth. He put us in a great place to win.
We had to pull him with 2 outs in the fifth inning down 2-0, but Benny Cerrato came in and got the third out to keep us in position to try to tie the game in the top of the 6th. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the job done despite our kids never giving up and continuing to battle through the whole game. Here’s the breakdown.
Top of the sixth inning:
- Derek Flynn walked to leadoff
- Benny Cerrato hit a hard ground ball up the middle to get runners on 1st and 2nd
- Ewan MacLean singled to left, scoring flynn and putting runners on second and third with no outs.
- Simsbury then got the next three batters on a strikeout, fly ball and ground ball to third to end the game.
Overall, this was a great performance for this team. They’ve won back-to-back district championships, something I’m not sure any Monroe team has done, and we were inches away from making the state final (which I’m also not sure a Monroe team has done).
‘A tight knit group’
I would like to acknowledge my assistant coaches, Andy Grant and Nick Franzago. This is our fourth summer together, largely with the same group of kids, and I don’t think the team is in this position without the coaches. But also the support of the boys’ families, who put aside a good amount of normal summer life, so their kids can experience this.
It’s a tight knit group. Thursday night, before the elimination game, we had practice and then ordered pizza up at Beardsley field, so we could watch the Monroe 9u tournament final and cheer on the Monroe 9u team against Trumbull in the finals.
And on Monday night, the whole team was at my house watching the Major League Home Run Derby and doing build your own ice cream sundaes. Maybe they’ll be sick of each other at some point, but I guess not yet.
