DELAWARE DRAGONS TAKE 3RD IN WINTER FLORIDA REGIONAL
The Delaware Dragons consisting of 15 to 18 year olds took 3rd in the 18u Cocoa Expo President’s Day Challenge Tournament in Cocoa, Florida this past weekend.
Game 1: Dragons 3 Chester County PA 2
Steve Wright and Dain Thorpe pitched brilliantly for the win. Jordan Shupe and Adam Roark had 2 hits each.
Nick Pilato drove the winning run in and threw out the potential winning run for the PA team at third after a fly out to right in extra innings. With no outs and a man on second a fly was hit to right, Nick fielded it hit Brett Cracco who made a perfect relay to Adam Roark for the double play which set the stage for Nick’s winning hit. Matt Graney made a terrific diving catch to end a scoring threat. Matt Aleman also made a great defensive play backing up on a muffed flyball and threw out the potential tying run. Little things win games.
Game 2: Dragons 9 Shenandoah NY 8
Playing last year’s finalist the Dragons dug themselves a whole giving up 5 unearned runs in the first. Bryan Perkins pitched a gem for 6 innings and Joe Brown came in for 2 innings for the win. Jordan Shupe and Donnie Witte had 2 hits each with Donnie hitting a triple and a double. Steve Wright tripled in the bottom of the seventh and Nick Pilato drove him in to complete the come back and force extra innings for the second straight game. Bryan Perkins knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth. Brett Cracco made some great defensive plays at shortstop. Matt Graney made 2 spectacular catches in the outfield.
Game 3: Dragons 12 Team Canada (Quebec) 8
Matt Graney pitched 5 1/3 innings and Bryan Perkins came in for the win. Matt Aleman, Matt Graney and Jordan Shupe each had multiple hits. Dan Eby had a triple and Joe Brown, Adam Roark, Donnie Witte, Bryan Perkins and Steve Wright all had doubles. Matt Aleman made a diving catch in centerfield defensively as the Dragons clinched the #1 seed and finished as the only undefeated team in pool play for the tournament.
Game 4: Ohio Orioles 10 Dragons 0
In a game where the Dragons came out flat, the team only mustered 1 hit by Matt Aleman. Matt Graney and Brett Cracco made some great defensive plays but Dragons could not get anything going offensively as every ball hit hard was right at someone. Adam Roark and Jordan Shupe pitched well for the Dragons.
Game 5: Dragons 7 RBI Baseball MA 0
The Dragons walked away with 3rd place when the RBI team decided to leave for home early due to the fact that they ran out of pitching. In all the Dragons played together as a team with all 12 players contributing to a successful early season campaign.
