New York City’s Little League World Series dreams will have to wait at least another year.
Staten Island South Shore Little League had their run in Williamsport, Pa., come to an end in a 6-1 loss to Florida on Tuesday, despite a valiant effort in which the New York squad tied the game 1-1 in the fourth inning and starter Stephen Grippo threw a Herculean 86 pitches.
“It was a great run that we had,” Staten Island manager Bob Laterza said during his postgame press conference. “But as long as they fight to the end I don’t have a problem, and they did. I’m happy we had it here, and it was a better experience than they ever would have imagined.”
Heads-up baserunning by Florida’s Teraj Alexander helped the Lake Mary team score the go-ahead run in the top of the fifth.
Florida had runners on first and second when Christopher Chikodroff hit a ball between first and second, forcing Alexander to dodge the smash and creating havoc for the Staten Island infielders.
The play allowed Liam Morrisey to score from second base.
The Florida Little Leaguers added four runs in the top of the sixth on a sac fly by James Feliciano and a three-run home run by DeMarcos Mieses.
Tuesday’s loss played out in similar fashion to previous Staten Island games in the tournament: The New Yorkers needed to go through the order once before their bats came alive.
In the previous two games, Staten Island was batting .652 the second time through the order.
The New Yorkers had gotten a strong start out of Grippo as he pitched 4 ²/₃ innings striking out seven batters while giving up two runs on two hits.
He had started the game by striking out four of the first six batters he faced.
Things got rocky for the Staten Island starter with one out in the top of the third when he walked one batter, yielded a hit then also hit a batter.
Grippo was able to get Lathan Norton to line out, but he walked Hunter Alexander on five pitches to allow the game’s first run before escaping the frame.
“He’s just a bulldog,” Laterza said about his starter. “He pitched his heart out tonight, and we just ran out of pitchers.”
Florida starter Garrett Rohozen was able to get out of a jam in the bottom of the third after Staten Island had runners on the corners thanks to a leadoff walk and a single by Dylan DeGaeta.
Rohozen got the next two batters out to end the inning.
Staten Island tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Jason Rocchio was hit by a scary pitch in the helmet.
Vincent Ruggiero doubled to put Rocchio on third, and a sac fly by Grippo led to the team’s only run of the game.
Scarangello came in to pitch in the middle of the top of the fifth after Grippo reached 86 pitches.
Alex Torres and Zach Weiss also came into the game in relief.
“We won two games, we made a little run, and I would have liked to finish it out with a couple more, but it wasn’t to be,” Laterza said.
