Tuesday June 14th (Championship Game)
Pizza Port 19 Village Pie Shop 8
It was #1 versus #2 for the Championship Game today at a very sunny and warm Pine Field. With Oscar Castillo providing a PA system complete with songs, announcers, flags and the national anthem it felt like the World Series at Yankee Stadium!!
Village Pie Shop with Pablo Shook and Al Cabacungan at the helm won a remarkable 31 games this year in a near coast to coast regular season domination. The only other team to hold 1st place this year was Pizza Port Brewery who fought through a year of injuries and short rosters to hang around long enough to finish in 2nd place and earn a spot in the title game.
VPS was by far the top hitting team in the league but as Pablo would say…not today. Pizza Port Brewery fielded a strong defensive team and was able to come away with a 19-8 victory to go
back-to-back for its second title in a row.
Pizza Port started out strong putting 5 on the board in the first inning. Dennis Rayford, Kevin McBarron, and Rod Johnson all had 4/4 days as PPB jumped out ahead. VPS came back with 3 in the bottom of the first with Phil Heinz 3/3 and Al Galaviz 3/3 leading the way to make it 5-3.
PPB was able to stretch the lead inning by inning as Rick Keefer 4/4 knocked in three runs and Gene LaChimia added 5 RBI’s to push the lead to 17-4. It might have been more if not for a beautiful running catch by Bob Porter and the arm of Pete Lindner. In the 7th inning Pete threw out two runners at home and Rod Johnson at second to record all three outs in the inning! Has this ever happened before anywhere? (Editor’s note: Rod is to be forgiven for running through the actual 2nd base to be tagged out…it’s a rule he was unaware of as he had never ventured past first base before in his stellar career!)
VPS threatened in the bottom of the 7th with Lindner- 2/2 -hitting a very, very long sacrifice fly that Michael Juditz made a nice catch on and Cabacungan getting his 3rd straight hit of the game to score 3 runs in the inning. But the damage might have been much worse if not for a Dennis Rayford snag of a hard liner turned double play to keep PPB ahead.
Dave Erwine played some nice defense and not only made three nice catches but also absolutely tattooed a ball deep into the left field corner for the games only HR, stretching the lead to the final 19-8 margin.
PPB had one of their better hitting days of the year but obviously you do not hold a powerful hitting team to 8 runs without a phenomenal defensive effort. Pitcher Rod Johnson dominated the game by flawlessly pitching to precise locations keeping the VPS batters off balance the entire day. The PPB outfield was very strong and was thankful to get back Pat Driscoll who struggled through fatigue after recovering from the dreaded Covid last week.
Afterwards a large group gathered at Hennessey’s Tavern for (several) libations and 2-for-1 burgers as players switched jerseys to prepare for a new year with new teammates.
Thanks to Roney Lewis and Rick Shaw who umpired a strong game today and to all the fans who came out to watch…it certainly makes it feel special.
2022 Season 1: STANDINGS AS OF 6-7-22
Standings are posted after all scores have been received (in a timely manner)