Padres Win Minor Championship 2-1 In A Thriller

The 9U CHAMPS Front row: Scott Kiley, Ryan Smith, Tommy Ilardi, Owen Lucano, Caroline Allen, Second row: Ben Walsh, Tommy VanNoy, Vincent Vaiana, Matt Vani, Jack Riceman, Henry Saenz. Coaches: Scott Kiley, Joe Vani, Bill Lucano and Tom VanNoy

Baseball Championship morning started off with the finals in the Minors U9 age group. The game featured the hitting of the Padres verse the strong pitching of the Angels. The Padres high scoring offense had lead the league in runs scored while the strong pitching and defense of the Angels had allowed the fewest runs over the course of the season. The Padres jumped out to an early 2-0 lead behind the speed of Scott Kiley who beat out an infield hit and scored the games first run on after clutch hits by Jack Riceman and Tommy Ilardi. But the Angels answered and quickly made it 2-1. The Angels defense and pitching took over from there. The Angels completely shut down the Padres offense for the rest of the game and did not yield another run. Great players were turned in by the Angels to keep them within striking distance. However the Padres kept rolling long on as well. The Padres were pitching by committee and all 11 team members pitched in the championship game. Each Padres pitcher managed to throw one of their best games of the year. When they were not pitching they were supporting their pitcher. The entire cast of Caroline Allen, Henry Saenz, Ben Walsh, Vincent Vaiana, Tommy VanNoy, Owen Lucano, Ryan Smith, Scott Kiley, Matt Vani, Jack Riceman, and Tommy Ilardi all had their best defensive game of the year to help keep the game close. In fact, every boy on both teams came up big in just about every pressure situation. The game could not have been more entertaining and it went right down to the wire. In the fifth inning Matt Vani snared a line drive to end another Angel rally and in the 6th Tommy Ilardi closed out the 2-1 championship win when Scott Kiley snared a grounder at second and flipped to Owen Lucano at first for the victory.