YANKEES ARE CHAMPIONS AFTER REMARKABLE COME FROM BEHIND WIN

The Herts Yankees came back from the dead to become Herts Baseball Little League Champions for a second year in a row.  Trailing 4-0 going into the sixth inning they pulled off an amazing come back to beat the Blue Jays 6-4.

The Yankees may have finished ahead of everyone else in the regular season, but going into the Final, the Blue Jays were the team with all the momentum.  They were the hottest team in the league winning 5 out of their last 6 games and an upset was on the cards.  Yankees’ starter, Marty Cullen Jr, got the game under way retiring the first three batters in order.  Starting for the Blue Jays was Nickolas Martinez who responded with 3 strikeouts in the bottom of the first. 

In the top of the second the Blue Jays opened the score when Kieran Manning tripled and was driven in by Storm Frisby.  Frisby was one of the outstanding performers of the day with two clutch hits driving in two key runs for the Jays.  Lewis Paterson (2-4), Zack Longboy (2-4), Kieran Manning (2-3) and Jake Strange (1-2) were the other big hitters as the Blue Jays took a 4-0 lead. 

At the same time Martinez was putting up zeros inning-after-inning.  He pitched 5 scoreless innings striking out 10 and allowing only 1 hit – an absolutely amazing performance under pressure.

The Yankees were struggling to put together any kind of offensive threat but they were taking Martinez deep into the count.  By the end of the 5^th he had thrown 76 pitches (51 strikes – 25 balls) and had to be taken out of the game.

The Yankees were running out of time trailing 4-0 and needing a miracle.  But they came out swinging their bats hard in the bottom of the sixth.  A combination of walks and timely hits produced the most incredible of come backs.  Both Declan Carlean and Lewis Green hit RBI singles and Robert Binns delivered the knockout punch with a triple to drive in 2 more runs.  The Yankees scored 6 runs in that inning.  This meant that the Blue Jays needed to score 2 in the 7^th and final inning to stay in the game.  All the pressure was on Yankees’ pitcher Marty Cullen and he kept his nerve closing the game in style with a groundout and 2 strikeouts.  Yankees Centerfielder, Lewis Green was voted as the MVP of the 2009 Championship Game.

After the game Blue Jays’ Managers, Arnie Longboy and Jeff Witter, had a message for their players: ”It has been a pleasure working with such a dedicated group of players.  All season the players have worked so hard and it has been very satisfying to see them grow as players”. 

That was a heartbreaking loss for the Blue Jays, many of whom were in tears after the game.  In every game there must be winners and losers but in this case both teams can be very proud of themselves.  They produced a thrilling baseball game of the highest quality for the fans who had packed the spectator areas at Grovehill Ballpark.  They certainly showed that the future is bright for Herts Baseball Club.

Herts Yankees Manager, Marty Cullen, said:  “I may have been acting as the stand-in Yankees Manager today, but as the Commissioner of the Herts Little League, I feel that this is more than just about the Yankees winning the title.  All the teams deserve credit and now that the Herts Little League season has ended it is time for all of our Herts Little League players to turn their attention to the upcoming National Championship, which is an opportunity for our club to show what Herts is about to the rest of Britain.”

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