Cardinals win two nail-biters to capture Northeast Little League second-half title

In a playoff series that had parents and other spectators both nervous and mystified at times, the Cardinals team captured the Northeast Cleveland Little League (NEC LL) second-half championship with two narrow victories over the White Sox, who had won the first-half crown.

            In the first game, played at Humphrey Field, Manager Dave Cruickshank’s Cardinals won by an 8-7 score as they held off a late White Sox rally.

           Troy Cruikshank smacked a solo home run in the first inning to get the Cards going. Then, after second baseman Mark Csoltko hit an infield sacrifice to advance Jeremiah (“Jeri”) Green to second, Green moved to third on a throwing error and scored on a wild pitch to give the Cards a 2-0 lead.

            In the fourth inning, the Cards extended their lead to 6-0 on Csoltko’s RBI single, and added another run when Marias “Tim” Rubin smacked a deep single past the Sox infielders. However, he was tagged out at second trying to stretch his hit into a double. Rubin, the Cards’ lanky pitching ace, tossed perhaps his best game of the season and got plenty of offensive support as his teammates batted around in the fourth inning.

            The Cardinals were still sitting on a 7-0 cushion going into the sixth (and final) inning. That’s when Sox Manager Tommy Bell’s team kicked into high gear—with help from a relief pitcher’s wildness—to stage an impressive rally. Two bases-loaded walks closed the gap to 7-2 and the Sox added another run when Aaron Davidson was hit by a pitch, forcing in a run.

            A pitching change brought Jeremiah Green to the mound and he recorded  the second out of the inning with a strikeout. However, two more hit batsmen and another bases-loaded walk sliced the Cards’ lead to 7-6, before Sam Wright scored from third on a wild pitch to tie the score. Darrell Dunnican and Dakota Bell recorded big hits for the Sox in their half of the sixth, which ended in a 7-7 tie.

            In the bottom half of the sixth, a triple by Troy Cruikshank helped the Cards launch a rally of their own. After the Sox brought in a new pitcher, walks issued to Jeri Green and Mark Csoltko loaded the bases. Then, giving the Sox a taste of their own medicine, Cruikshank scored from third on a wild pitch to seal the Cardinals’ 8-7 victory.

            The triumph merely moved the Cards—a team backed by the Northeast Shores Development Corp.--into a tie with the Sox in the final standings. So another contest was needed to settle the second-half championship in the NEC LL’s Major Division, which is for 11- and 12-year-old ballplayers.

            On a warm and humid Friday night, the script was slightly reversed as the Cardinals fell behind, 9-5, in the early going before Tim Rubin’s two-run homer in the second closed the gap to 9-7. And in the bottom of the third, Alex Sari’s triple triggered a five-run outburst that put the Cards on top. Sari, the third baseman, was one of the game’s offensive stars, going three-for-four at the plate.

         Here’s how the big inning went: Javari Hines was hit by a pitch and stole second before Troy Cruickshank walked to load the bases with just one out. When Csoltko was hit by a pitch to force in a run, the score was tied, 9-9. Then Tim Rubin put an exclamation point on the Cards’ rally with a two-RBI double that made it 11-9. They stretched their lead to 12-9 when an off-target throw to second allowed a run to cross the plate.

          But the White Sox still had a few tricks up their sleeves. In the top of the fifth, Dakota Bell, a candidate for league MVP honors, beat out a throw to first to record a single; however, when he tried to take advantage of several fielding miscues and stretch the hit into an inside-the-park home run, he was tagged out at the plate by catcher Jeri Green.

          That turned out to be a big break for the Cards because, a few minutes later, Isiah Wright slapped an RBI single up the middle to slice the Sox deficit to 12-10. With runners on first and third, a single by Aaron Davidson drove in another run to make it 12-11. But in the bottom of the inning the Cards stretched their lead back to 14-11 as Mario Moore’s fly ball to center drove in a run.

          The drama intensified in the top of the sixth when a single, a walk, and a hit batsman loaded the bases for the White Sox. Mark Csoltko, the Cards’ second baseman who hadn’t seen much mound duty this season, was brought in with two outs and runners at every base to try to get the final out. The next Sox batter, Tyree Pitts, drew a walk to force in a run. Then speedy Dakota Bell stole home to slice the margin to 14-13, causing fans and coaches on both sides to squirm in their seats.

          But Csoltko--who later said he really didn’t feel very nervous on the mound, despite the tight situation--coolly struck out the next batter to cut through the tension, end the game, and seal the victory for the Cardinals.

          Here are the full alphabetical rosters for the two contending teams:

CARDINALS—Troy Cruickshank, Mark Csoltko, Tyyonna Davis, Jeremiah Green, Syncere Gunn, Javari Hines, Cidney Johnson, Avonte Kennibrew, Mario Moore, Trejon Robinson, Marais “Tim” Rubin, Marionne Rubin, Alex Sari. Manager: Dave Cruickshank. Coach: Marion Moore.

WHITE SOX—Dakota Bell, Malik Calloway, Aaron Davidson, Darrell Dunnican, Te’Denero Fomby, Dwayne Houston, Tyree Pitts, Sam Wright III, Wadell White, Isiah Wright, Dorian Evans, Jovan Bacchus. Manager: Tommy Bell. Coach: Arlando Davis.

###   

PHOTO CAPTIONS for N.E.C. LITTLE LEAGUE STORY 

 

CARDINALS TEAM PHOTO:

 (No. 276 on current chip)

 THE CHAMPIONS – Well, for the season’s second half, anyway.  The tenacious Cardinals team won two close games in a row, by scores of 8-7 and 14-13, over the White Sox to capture the second-half championship in a Northeast Cleveland Little League playoff.  Kneeling, from left to right: Javari Hines, Marionne Rubin, Mark Csoltko, and Jeremiah “Jeri” Greene. Standing, from left:  Marias “Tim” Rubin, Manager Dave Cruickshank, Alex Sari, Avonte Kennibrew (in white shirt), Troy Cruickshank, Mario Moore, Cidney Johnson, and Coach Marion Moore. (Photo by John Sheridan)

 

 

Photo  of N.E.C. Little League female player

(No. 291 on current chip)

 

NO LONGER JUST A BOYS’ WORLD – Cidney Johnson, an outfielder, peered out from the dugout at Humphrey Field while her team waited for a game that was cancelled because the opposing team failed to show up. Cidney, now a sixth grader at St. Jerome School, is the only girl on the Cardinals squad, which captured the Northeast Cleveland Little League’s second-half championship. She says she tried out for the team because she wanted “to prove that I can do anything a boy can do.”  But she still retains her feminine interests, like cheerleading for her favorite youth football team. Cidney is a good student who gets “mostly A’s and B’s” in school.  She said some of the boys on the Cardinals gave her a bit of razzing, “but a lot of them have been very supportive.”    (Photo by John Sheridan)