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Beast Crimson Holds On For Hard-Fought 1-0 Victory over LI Empire Grande

by Jacob Infald

It was an intense, hard-fought victory for Beast Crimson, as they handed Long Island Empire Grande their only pool play loss in a thrilling 1-0 victory that saw no shortage of exciting moments. 

While the score was 1-0, both teams had ample opportunity to score. In the first three innings, there were a total of five runners left on base. Beast starter Anthony Paulson (Ward Melville 2029), surrendered two walks in the first inning, but with the help of his catcher Jake Pancir who caught Ryan Siederman stealing for the first out of the game, Paulson was able to escape the first unscathed. From there, Paulson would go on to retire eight batters in a row to keep Long Island Empire off the board. 

On the other side, Mason Persaud (Hicksville 2029), did not make things easy for himself. He walked the first two batters in the bottom half of the first, before striking out the following three. Persaud relied on his fastball, filling up the entire zone, ending the inning with a backwards K with a heater touching the outside corner. 

In the bottom of third, Beast threatened again, with Jack Guggenheim leading the inning off with a base hit to left center, followed by a walk drawn by Paulson, Beast was set up with two runners on and nobody out. After a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by the following batter Parker Zuklie, Beast tried to play more small ball. 

The following batter, Miles Kalisiewicz squared around to bunt and Guggenheim broke towards home from third. Unfortunately, Kalisiewicz was unable to make contact with the ball, Guggenheim was caught in a run down and was eventually thrown out. Persaud would go on to strike out Kalisiewicz for the third out of the inning, his sixth strikeout of the game. 

Long Island Empire would make Paulson work in the following inning. With one out, three consecutive batters reached base, including base hits by Carter Blumstetter and Nate Ocampo, and the bases were loaded with one out. 

Paulson would bear down, forcing back-to-back ground balls. The first one was a chopper to the right side that Mark Speiss cut down perfectly, firing a strike to Pancir for the force out at home. The second groundball was gobbled up by Anthony Campagnone at shortstop and Paulson escaped the threat and his teammates, coaches and fans were fired up. 

Beast was able to take advantage of his energy in the bottom of the inning. With Joe Inzauto now pitching for Long Island Empire, Thomas Nappi hit a rope up the middle for a one-out single. After a HBP, Pancir made a productive out, hitting a groundball to the right side to advance both runners into scoring position. Sensing another scoring opportunity slipping away, Nappi gave himself a great secondary lead on third and read a passed ball perfectly, breaking for home and scoring easily to put Beast in front. 

Beast turned to Guggenheim to nurse their lead in the top of the fifth. After four shutout innings from Paulson, Guggenheim picked up right where his teammate left off. He retired the side in order in the top of the fifth including two strikeouts.

Long Island Empire would not go away easily. After surrendering a leadoff double to Jack Thors in the bottom of the fifth, Inzauto retired the final six batters he faced, keeping his team within one run. 

Guggenheim would walk the leadoff batter in the sixth, but a great pickoff move immediately cleared the bases and fired up the Beast faithful. In the seventh, Guggenheim put two more runners on with one out. With the tying run in scoring position and go-ahead run now on base, Guggenheim bore down, forcing a weak pop out before striking out the final batter to secure the victory.