After going 1-1 on the first day of the tournament, Albany returned to Bow field Sunday morning to resume play (http://www.bow.k12.nh.us/BHS/).
In the second inning, it started to rain, but not enough to stop the game. Even in New Hampshire, we couldn’t get away from the rain. Also, in the second inning, the Albany bats sprung to life. Six of Albany’s eight hits led to a six run rally and a comfortable lead. Albany added two more runs in the bottom of the 6th to make the score 8-1.
John Latorre and Randy Craft led the attack with two hits each.
Darrell Duncan shut down the Massachusetts Warriors allowing one unearned run. He struck out five, walked two and only allowed three hits.
This set up a show-down with the 3-0 New Hampshire Eagles, who defeated Albany 3-1 on Saturday.
After three games in two days, the effects of playing in hot, humid weather would take its toll in the nine inning championship game.
In the top of the first Albany took an early lead. A walk, hit batter and two run single by Kevin Jackson put Albany in front. Jim Latorre took the mound again in the championship game for Albany. He walked two of the first three batters which set up a confrontation with our game two nemesis, Clint Vieno. He promptly singled to knock in a run and with two more consecutive singles, Albany was down 4-2. Each team scored a run in the second to make it 5-3. Then both pitchers settled in until the sixth when Albany scored three times, highlighted by Mike Labarge’s two rbi single. This gave us our first lead in 13 innings against the Eagles.
Falling behind, along with the weather, and playing four games in two days, broke the back of the Eagles. Albany scored 10 times in the eighth and ninth innings to take a commanding 16-5 lead. The Eagles scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to make the final score 16-8.
Tom Maney and Kevin Jackson led the offense with three hits each. Jim Latorre was a horse on the mound. In hot, humid conditions, he went the full nine innings (16 innings in two days). This earned him a co-MVP award. Mike Labarge was just as tough catching all four games for Albany. His timely hits, including the go ahead rbi’s in the championship game earned him a share of the MVP award.
Albany’s defense was outstanding for the entire tournament. We committed only three errors in four games.
Our hosts put on a great tournament. The field was in great shape. We had more than enough baseballs (we needed them because we were surrounded by woods) and the umpires were excellent. The post game sessions were enjoyable, too. Hot dogs and sausages were available along with an unlimited supply of twinkies and yodels (one of players is a distributor). The folks from New Hampshire are a great group.
