Mount Kisco Little League
This Week in Baseball (TWIB) – Mount Kisco Baseball edition 5/8-5/13
Welcome back baseball fans, players, parents and the rest of the Mount Kisco baseball community. Another week, another washed out Saturday as our Mother’s Day celebration event was pushed to Saturday May 20th. The wet weather has dominated the discussions with the coaches throwing around rain clichés as they scramble to reschedule games…terms like wet blankets, singing in the rain, dampening the spirits, rain dances, raining cats & dogs…enough is enough. Let’s play ball!!!
Jumping into this week’s action and we are starting to see some separation at the top of the standings. Long way to go but Cassidy Flynn and Varamo look like the teams to beat as they sit atop their respective divisions.
Over in MKLL…
Cassidy Flynn is riding a 5-game winning streak entering the week to open up a 2-game lead at 7-1 on the season. The team has outscored opponents 42-12 over that period with the youngsters showing some hustle and hard work to lengthen the lineup. Rory Grant saw his work in the batting cage payoff with his first hit and Daniel “Usain Bolt” Kornreich legged out an infield hit with incredible hustle down the first base line. Max Guyder has provided the power on the mound and in the batter’s box with a bomb over the left field fence for his first HR. With a team ERA of a measly 2.88 and a WHIP of just 1.13, the pitching staff led by veteran arms Max-G and Double-Duarte is flirting with historical numbers and has been the key to Cassidy Flynn’s success.
After an amazing 5-game winning streak of their own to jump into 2nd place, Coach Rocky’s Robison squad lost a close 4-3 game to M&R on Friday. The team had gone 17 straight days without a loss sending a message that this team is for real. Early in the week the Orange Crush extended their winning streak with a 6-5 victory over Elks. Key pitching by Nick “the Quick” Cacovic and Jack Cicchelli combined with a great defensive effort by Daniel Caparole behind the dish led the team. In Friday’s streak ending loss it was Cacovic on the mound again along with Chris Bueti. The offense was paced by Bueti (2 hits), Cacovic and Gio “Fonzie” Fonseca.
Our Game of the Week featured a nail-biter between Exit 4 Food Hall and SW&G. Exit 4 jumped out to an early lead 5-0 behind an offensive attack led by Jeff Tripodi, Noah Fisher and PJ Stonsby (two hits each). Coaches Reder, Rozgonyi and Brauning knew they needed to shake it up trying everything from double-switches to defensive shifts to rally caps. Coach Rozgonyi even jumped into the stands to start the wave. Something seemed to click as the SW&G team awoke roaring back in the 4th and 5th innings. Tommy “T-Roz” Rozgonyi and Andrew “Southpaw” Reder collected two extra base hits apiece to lead the SWG comeback as the team scored 4 runs in each of the 4th & 5th innings to tie the score at 8. But…the 6th inning belonged to Jeff “Babe Ruth” Tripodi launching a two-run home run to help Exit 4 regain the lead in the top half of the sixth then taking the mound to strikeout the side in the bottom of the inning to seal the win 10-8. Exit 4 sits at 5-3 entering the week, two games back of 1st place. Special mention to Nate Brauning and Tommy Rozgonyi for hitting their 1st MKLL HRs this week.
M&R Deli had a 1-2 week but came through with a big win on Friday to stop a 2-game losing streak bringing them to .500 for the season at 4-4. Coaches Goldman and Renz received some key contributions early in the week from Joey “the Volcano” Valvano (first MKLL hit) and Garrett Westervelt making some tough plays in the field. The deep pitching rotation of Lev Simkhai, Mack Seidman, Zach Goldman, Tyler Renz and Volcano Valvano led the way. In Friday’s game M&R topped Robison 4-3. The Goldman and Simkhai connection played a huge role with some economical pitching and then as a battery nailing the potential go ahead run at the plate on a steal attempt. Renz became the go ahead run as he walked, stole his way to third and then was driven in by Simkhai. Tyler “Sandman” Renz then finished it up on the mound for the 4-3 win.
The defending champs Elks team is still searching for a “W” losing two, tough-fought one-run games this week. The coaching staff is seeing some nice development from this young team as they focus on the fundamentals and build team chemistry. Strong pitching by the entire staff…Dominick “Make ’em look Dizzy” Larizza, Jack Mannion, Cole Simon “Says”, Lance Kleinknecht and Dan “the Hitman” Spolan…sky kept the Elks team in each game. The bats are also starting to come alive with hits from Spolansky, Larizza, Mannion, Kleinknecht, Saer Sicignano, Paul Wichmann and Matt Denker. We’ll see if this team can turn the corner and break into the W column in the coming weeks.
Over the in the minors AAA division there were only two games this week…
Monday night featured an early game pitching duel with Michael “Crusher” Salvatorelli pitching a gem for Varamo and Luke & John Grasso on the bump for McCarthy. The McCarthy team supported the strong pitching by pulling off a web gem, play of the year type double-play. A solid line drive was chased down by leftfielder Joe Frusciante relaying to second baseman James McDonald who alertly tagged the baserunner headed to 2B for an out and then seamlessly, without hesitation, fired home to catcher Tyler Graham for the tag and an unbelievable double-play. If you haven’t seen it yet on ESPN, it’s a must see. The play has been searched and viewed over 8 million times on YouTube. From there it was the offensive firepower of Varamo that took over the game. Spencer “Blackjack” Grayson started it off with a rope to LF followed by a walk to Paul “Ducky” Hirschhorn and a long single by Crusher. After another walk the bases were loaded for Finn “The Finnisher” Guyder who blasted a long shot to right field to clear the bases. The VC Ballers tallied a few more putting them ahead 7-1. Joe “Seal” Cerone came in to close the game with two strikeouts.
The Examiner was matched up vs Shell looking for revenge from an early season loss that ended their 15-game winning streak. Coach Diorio had his team focused on plate discipline after the free-swinging big green machine struggled to score runs in recent games. The team saw immediate results as the top of the order catalysts Liam “Wait till you see him” Provost and Tara “Mac Attack” McNamee pushed the Examiner out to an early lead with hits and runs scored. Vincenzo “Lil’ Volcano” Volvano got the start striking out the side in the 1st inning. For Shell, the youngster Vince White had a promising pitching debut striking out six batters. He was followed by Matthew “Fierce” Pierce in relief with a key strikeout to keep the game close. Offensively it was Damien Seidman and Eoin McIntyre continuing their hitting streaks with timely hits and RBIs. Examiner opened up the game in the 3rd inning as “Jono” Diorio drove in Calum Andersen, Provost and Volvano with a booming double. Shell put the pressure on in the final inning loading the bases but were shut down as “Mo” Diorio came in for the save with a big strikeout and 6-3 win for Examiner.
In the Seniors Division only one game this week…
The Mount Kisco U15 Chiefs fell to 2-2 on the season with an 8-3 loss to BPR Black on Monday in a game called after 6 innings due to darkness. BPR broke open a tight contest with 3 runs in the 6th to seal the victory. The Chiefs attack was paced by PJ Boles, who was 2 for 2 on the night (RBI double) with Luca “I’m better than Antonio” Chousa and Jason Kerwar also contributing an RBI each. TWIB analytics group, with the help of IBMs Watson, has crunched the #s to unveil some impressive early season stats. 10 players have OBP’s of .400 or better. PJ Boles’ OPS is 1.528, followed by Jordan Sauro at 1.071 and Mike Luppino at .929. Luppino also leads the team in RBIs with 4 in 4 games followed by Sauro and David Boucher with 3 each. AJ Townsend has been productive in the early going with 6 runs scored to lead the team. Spencer Rosen and Boucher lead the pitching staff with an ERA of 3.50 followed closely by Harrison Konopka at 4.20 and 7 strikeouts in 5 IP.
Well folks stay tuned as things are just heating up in Mount Kisco baseball. See ya’ll next week on TWIB.
Examiner Media – Keeping you informed with professionally-reported local news, features, and sports coverage.