Nike Park is the site for the Naperville Little League Baseball Majors A City Championship. This contest features the Below H2O Thunder versus the NWB Mangos. The Thunder have plenty of experience, with six players who played on a championship-winning team. Despite not being available for the championship, Alexander Prisacaru helped the Thunder throughout the season on their way to the title game. On the other side, the Mangos field a deep squad.
Additionally, three Mangos players played on the Rookies AA championship-winning team in 2022. Will Radzicki was key to the Mangos as they get ready to play in the Majors A Championship.
The Mangos strike first
In the top of the first, the Thunder start fast with Clayton Chang drawing a leadoff walk. After Matthew Padayhag walks, Paxson Fabian loads the bases up with a single. However, Mangos pitcher Frank Mach retires the next three batters to get out of the jam.
In the home half of the inning, Kovas Radzevicius sends the ball into right field and speeds to third for an early triple. In the next at-bat, Fabian makes a tough catch to save a run from scoring. The next batter for the Mangos is Mason DeVee. He lines one out to left field, bringing Radzevicius home to put his team up 1-0. After DeVee steals second, Frank Mach sends the ball up the infield for an RBI single. It’s 2-0 Mangos going into the second.
Batting first for the Thunder, George Ortiz starts the inning with a leadoff walk. Luke Winterhalter joins his teammate in the walk party after taking four balls at the plate. Then, Owen Woods sees a ball get passed and lets Ortiz score, putting the Thunder on the board.
NWB charges ahead
Now to the bottom of the second, where Beau Early singles to left field. After Early steals second, Jake Hansen rips an rbi double to left field, scoring Early and extending the Mangos’ lead to 1-3. Hansen takes second right before Emmett Evans walks. The Mangos are ready to score again with runners on first and third. With Evans taking second base, Mangos batter Leon Molina records an infield single. The home team leads 4-1. Following a double steal on the basepaths, a passed ball leads to Evans widening the lead to 5-1. The Thunder get out of the inning with a great catch by the left fielder, Sathvik Talapaneni.
The Thunder storm back
Mateo Orihuela takes ball four for the walk at the top of the third. Then, Clayton Chang works the count and gets to first base. In the next at-bat, a hard-hit ball to centerfield is caught by Christian Therapos. Talapaneni comes up clutch with an rbi double and advances Orihuela to third. The Thunder now trail 2-5.
After, a wild pitch brings in two runs for the Thunder, as they inch their way back and now come within one run of the Mangos. Francisco Hernandez follows up with a walk to first, and Garrett Garcia takes a walk as well. With a passed ball getting by, Ryan Mourad motions for a run to score, tying the ballgame at 5-5. Mourad then gets on base after an inside pitch.
Below H2O takes the Majors A Championship
An outside pitch brings in the lead, as the Thunder go ahead 6-5. In the bottom frame of the third, Weston Hartwig knocks in a single to right center field. Shortly after, Mach comes in for a 2-out RBI single, scoring the tying run to make it 6-6 going halfway through the game.
The fourth inning starts with Mango pitcher Ronan Starr fielding a grounder for the out at first. After two more runs score, the Thunder go out in front 8-6.
The Thunder pile on more walks in the top of the fifth. With 2 outs, Matthew Padayhag singles and brings two more runs in.
Fast forward to the bottom of the sixth, the Mangos battle back. Matthew Yerzin gets on base via walk. Next, Beau Early comes up for a double into left field. However, despite two runs coming in, the Thunder close out the game with a 13-10 victory, taking the Majors A Championship!
Remember to order a personal copy of the game by visiting the NCTV17 online store and purchasing an MP4 download!
