The U11 Plainview Hawks won a championship game over the Levittown North Stars by a score of 9-1 in the Hicksville Fall Classic. Plainview went 7-1 in the fall and the team’s only loss was to this Levittown team in the first game of the tournament by a score of 6-3.
This was a team win with patience at the plate, aggressive base running, timely hitting and strong pitching. Eric K. started the game and at first it looked like Levittown came to play. Their leadoff hitter walked on four pitches and went on to steal second and third base. Eric settled in by striking out the second batter of the game, and a soft line drive to first was caught by Alex J. for the second out. With the runner still stranded at third, Eric battled to strike out the next hitter for the final out of the inning. Eric went on and pitched his heart out and ran into very little trouble to finish a complete game, giving up one unearned run, three hits and finishing with nine strikeouts.
The Hawks took advantage quickly in the bottom of the first inning with Max L. leading off with his own walk. He stole second base and Ryan S. executed a sacrifice bunt to advance Max to third base. Max would go on to steal home to make it a 1-0 game. Jason P. and Alex J., who both would reach base on consecutive walks, scored on a double by Matty M. Ethan B. would follow Matty with his own double to bring in the fourth run of the inning. Ethan B. came up limping with a hard slide into second base and pinch runner Ryan S. would wind up stealing third base and scored on a sacrifice play by “BIG” Gianni R.
The Hawks went up 5-0 in the first and never looked back. They went on to score one more run in the second inning, another in the fourth, and two more in the fifth.
On a footnote, the Hawks finished the game with nine runs by eight different players. They also attempted 14 steals while only being thrown out once. Congratulations go out to the U11 Plainview Hawks: all their hard work resulted in a successful fall season and the championship.
