Steve Stenberg tried to relax his Mercer Island Little League kids by comparing himself to Staten Island’s hard-throwing, left-handed hurler Angelo Navetta. His kids, though, didn’t buy his theory that the Washington boys should be relaxed and confident heading into Friday’s opening game of the Little League World Series.
They said, “Quite honestly, your curve isn’t as good,” the manager said.
How good Stenberg’s curve is hasn’t been determined.
A national audience found out Navetta is pretty darn good. The South Shore National Little Leaguer struck out nine in his 5 1/3 innings of work, and teammate Nick Pucciarelli provided the punch, going 2-for-4 with a triple, home run and four RBIs as New York opened with a 10-2 victory over Mercer Island at Volunteer Stadium.
New York broke the scoreless tie in the third inning on an RBI to right field by catcher James Morisano, and Pucciarelli followed up with a two-run blast over the fence in right-center as Staten Island had a 3-0 lead; one it would never relinquish.
The Mid-Atlantic champs then tacked on four runs in the fourth and three tallies in the fifth.
“I was just trying to keep my hands back,” Pucciarelli said of the home run. “I felt it as soon as I hit it.”
Mercer Island, which suffered its first defeat of the all-star season, had a golden opportunity in the first when back-to-back hits by Michael Bantle and William Mansfield put runners in scoring position. But Navetta battled out of it with a strikeout and 6-3 groundout to Anthony Scotti.
The Northwest Regional champs scored their first run in the fifth as Bantle roped a two-out, two-strike pitch into center field for a double. It plated Sam Pugel — on base following a fielder’s choice.
Another run was scored in the sixth when Aidan Plummer, who reached by error, crossed home on a wild pitch.
“The team that hits is usually the team that has the advantage when you have two top pitchers going head to head,” Stenberg said. “I give New York all the credit because they hit the ball better than we did. We need to take it up a notch. I think we got outplayed in every phase of the game. They brought their ‘A’ game. For two innings, we kept it close. It’s tough. We were 15-0, and Staten Island was also undefeated. Neither team is accustomed to losing games, but at the same time, we’ll bounce back. We have three or four kids that are under the weather. Right now, we need to get a good night’s sleep and try to get everyone as healthy as possible. And then, we’ll just have to lay it on the line for the remainder of the tournament. In five minutes, once they get back to the dorms, they will forget about the loss. It’s the coaches that rehash it over and over. That’s the way it always is.”
New York certainly hit the baseball. Out of the team’s 11 hits, six of them went for extra bases. Navetta, Scotti, Vincent Quinn and Michael Russell all had doubles in addition to Pucciarelli’s triple and home run.
“It’s nice to get the first one under our belts,” Staten Island manager Michael Zaccariello said. “You know you are going to face tough teams when you get here. We hit a couple of balls pretty hard, and I think Pucciarelli’s home run set the tone a little bit. We faced some quality teams in our state and in our region. I have all the confidence in the world in these kids. It doesn’t seem like nothing really bothers them.”
Navetta showed why he is considered one of the best pitchers at the Little League World Series. The youngster allowed two runs — one earned — as Washington scattered its seven hits throughout the game. More impressive was his strike-to-ball ratio. Out of his 87 pitches tossed, 68 were for strikes.
“It does help to pitch when you have a nice cushion,” Navetta said. “But I am always confident because I know we have such a good offense.” Bantle was 2-for-3, while Mansfield, Brandon Lawler, Max Hibbert, Anthony Scalzo and Nick Taylor had the other hits for Mercer Island.
“He’s a tough pitcher. When you come here, you haven’t seen many of these pitchers, but you always expect to face a tough kid,” Stenberg said. “I think we’ve only seen one pitcher as good as Angelo and that was Pasco National’s Austin Clarke, which we battled with in our state tournament. Austin may have had a filthier curve, but Angelo had a fastball that topped Clarke. He was just nailing the strike zone. I don’t know what his strike-to-ball ratio is, but I am curious to see it. We pride ourselves on being patient hitters, and patience works well when you can get ahead in the count. But he put himself in a favorable position in what felt like 70 or 80 percent of the at-bats.”
New York put itself in a good position to qualify for the United States semifinals that begin Wednesday. Mercer Island would most likely need wins over Iowa and Georgia to crack the top two in the pool, and a spot in that portion of the tournament.
“Now, we have to battle back because our backs are against the wall,” Stenberg said. “We have to win the next two if we want to have a chance to make the semifinals.”
Little League World Series
Game 1 in South Williamsport, Pa.
STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK, 10
MERCER ISLAND, WASHINGTON, 2
N 003 430 — 10 11 2
W 000 011 — 2 7 1
N: Angelo Navetta, Vincent Quinn (6) and James Morisano. W: William Mansfield, Max Hibbert (5), Brandon Lawler (5), Josh Stenberg (6) and Keegan Ogard, Aidan Plummer (4). WP: Navetta (1-0). LP: Mansfield (0-1). HR: N, Nick Pucciarelli. 3B: N, Pucciarelli. 2B: N, Navetta, Anthony Scotti, Quinn, Michael Russell. W, Michael Bantle, Mansfield. MH: N, Pucciarelli 2, Scotti 2, Russell 2. W, Bantle 2. LLWS Records: New York 1-0, Washington 0-1.
A World Series Game 3 Viewing Party with a big-screen viewing will be held at 12 p.m., Monday, Aug. 24, at the Boys & Girls Club, 2825 West Mercer Way. Pre-game festivities begin at noon, with lunch for sale, and the game starts at 1 p.m.
