Athletics 11, Cardinals 0

The Jericho Athletic Association baseball season officially came to an end on a beautiful late spring day at Lynch Field (formerly Merry Lane Field), where the Robin Hood Athletics, thanks to a combination of great pitching, errorless defense and yet another multiple hit inning put an abrupt end to the streaking Stasi Brothers Cardinals by a score of 11-0 to win the Majors championship.

The game was really two games in one - all 11 runs by the Athletics were scored in the fourth inning. The rest of the game featured five shut-out innings by the Cardinals pitching tandem of Danny Shorr and Randy Liebowitz and solid defense by Nikko Price. However, the Athletics received a tremendous pitching performance by Justin Mintz, who went all six innings in a complete game shut-out, featuring three strikeouts and only one hit allowed - a bloop single to right field just beyond the grasp of the infielders. Only seven Cardinals got on base and only one Cardinal got as far as third base. For Justin, it was his second complete game performance of the playoffs, coming a week after his 13 strikeout performance in the opening round of the playoffs.

The Athletics, after managing only one hit in the first three innings against Danny Shorr, finally put together yet another string of hits which has been their modus operandi all season. Justin Mintz and Brandon Dorman started the 9-hit, 11-run fourth inning for the Athletics with back to back home runs to right field to give the Athletics a 2-0 lead. Ari Freedman then followed with another shot to right field, which turned into a triple. He then scored on a single by Reggie Kronstadt. After a walk to Daniel Greenstein and a single by Steven Pestyner, Jared Oxenberg then broke the game open with a bases loaded two-run single to make the score 5-0. After walks to Dylan Kugler and Matthew Kent, Leo Weiner doubled to score two more runs. After Jonathan Davis singled and Mintz walked, Dorman hit a sacrifice fly to score Weiner and Reggie Kronstadt got his second hit of the inning to make the score 11-0, which was the final score.

The game was a microcosm of the season for the Athletics - tremendous pitching, especially Mintz, Jonathan Davis, Leo Weiner and Steven Pestyner; solid defense, especially Brandon Dorman behind the plate and Weiner, Davis and Daniel Greenstein in the infield; and timely hitting, where truly everyone in the lineup contributed. All in all, it was a memorable season for the Athletics, as the team finished with an 11-3 record, with each of its three losses by only one run. It scored 185 runs for the season, while giving up only 65 runs. Since the mid-point of the season, the coaches felt that this team had the look of a championship team and it seemed destined to win. It turned out that they were right, but the team could not have done it without the great collaborative effort of the kids and the thorough support of the parents.