“It’s tough,” John Grisch, who coached the East Hampton Little League’s 11-and-12-year-old entry in the District 36 tournament, said following Saturday’s 11-10 loss to Riverhead in the title game played at Riverhead’s Stotzky Park.
Grisch was kicking himself for having removed Bonac’s starter, Aidan Stone, in the bottom of the third inning with runners at first and second base and none out.
“I thought he was tiring,” said the coach, adding that “the heat was brutal.” East Hampton was leading 8-0, and it seemed a sensible move at the time.
But East Hampton’s relievers, as it turned out, were to be hit hard. Riverhead, which had eked out a 5-4 last-inning win over Sag Harbor last Thursday to get to the final, scored three runs in the third, four in the fourth, and three in the fifth, tying East Hampton, which had scored one in the fourth and one in the fifth, at 10-10 going into the sixth.
Finn Alversa, who went three-for-three in leading off for the Bonackers, singled to begin the top of the sixth. Colin Grisch, the winning pitcher in last Thursday’s 4-0 win over the North Shore Nationals, grounded out short-to-first as Alversa advanced to second on the play. A subsequent short-to-first groundout by Scott Abran enabled Alversa to take third, but he was stranded there as Declan Balnis’s long fly ball to right was caught.
And now to the agonizing bottom of the sixth. Riverhead’s first batter drew a walk, after which some allegedly shaky umpiring deprived East Hampton of an inning-ending double play and left a Riverhead runner in scoring position at second with two outs.
A deep-in-the-order batter then lifted a long fly down the right-field line. Grisch, who had reached his pitch count limit last Thursday, dived in trying to catch it, but the ball eluded him, and the runner from second scored as Riverhead and its fans went wild.
The elder Grisch agreed that it was “a heartbreaker.” The kids, most of whom play travel ball, would bounce back, he said — more readily than he would.
Elias Wojtusiak drove in three runs, and Abran and Ryan Balnis two each in Saturday’s game.
The news was a whole lot better insofar as the Bonackers were concerned last Thursday as Grisch, whose 12th birthday it was, pitched the team into the championship game by shutting out the North Shore Nationals 4-0 in Rocky Point.
He went the entire six innings, giving up three hits, walking two, and striking out 12.
East Hampton scored all of its runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Abran led off with a walk, after which Declan Balnis singled, putting runners at first and second for Rohan Keogh, who came through with a double to the fence that scored Abran with the first run of the game. Wojtusiak, who bats sixth in the young Bonackers’ lineup, then doubled in Balnis and Keogh for 3-0, and a sacrifice fly to right field by Ryan Balnis that plated Wojtusiak made it 4-0.
“Colin shut them down the rest of the way,” the elder Grisch said Friday, adding that North Shore had runners at second and third base with two outs in the top of the second, but Alversa, East Hampton’s second baseman, ended the threat, knocking down a ball hit his way and throwing the runner out.
