By Peter Summa
The Morristown American 9-year-old All Stars avenged an 8-0 loss earlier in the regular season by defeating Randolph in the championship game of the Mendham 9U Little League Tournament, 6-5, on July 20, 2018.
The team finished the season 10-1 with the final game victory.
Morristown American started strong by scoring 3 runs in the top of the 1st inning, but Randolph fought back and scored 5 runs between the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings to take a 5-3 lead.
In the top of the 6th, Thomas Lucignani led off with a single, followed by a walk by Andrew Summa and then Evan Curnow got hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Artie Conover drove one run in via a fielder’s choice, and after a strikeout, Vince Achilarre came up with 2 outs. Achilarre hit a single to center that scored the tying run and then the go-ahead run scored on an overthrow.
In the bottom of the 6th, Randolph got runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out, but Summa struck out a batter to get the 2nd out and then Achilarre came up big again with a strong play at third on a grounder and threw the batter out at first to end the game.
Conover pitched 4 solid innings as the starter and Summa pitched the last 2 innings of the game for the win. The two pitchers combined to scatter 3 hits over 6 innings.
Lucignani, Conover and Achilarre each had 2 hits. Oliver Elms, Weston Elms and Jackson Groenveld all made critical catches in the outfield.
Drew Friday had a key RBI single in the first inning and played a solid shortstop. Jake Lobel, Christian Fell and Tyler Garretson also contributed at the plate and in the field in the victory.
Both teams were resilient to the last out and both showed maturity by battling back. Morristown American received a big boost from the Morristown fans, and other league players who came to Mendham to cheer them to victory.
