KTBA teams fare well in season-closing tourney

August 26, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Simon Lloyd
The 2014 KTBA season wrapped up with a year-end tournament in Aurora. Full reports were not available at press time but will follow in these pages next week.

Husky Player Of The Week

This week’s KTBA Player Of The Week is Bantam player Jonathan DiGiorgio. Jonathan wins a commemorative certificate and a $35 iTunes gift card courtesy of Husky Injection Molding Systems in Bolton. Congratulations Jonathan!

Junior Rookie – Armstrong Petroleum

From May to August our little sluggers have worked hard, developed their skills and have become true baseball competitors.
Unfortunately heading into the playoffs the team fell short. In their first game against Optimist Club of Aurora, RBIs were hit by Julian DePietro, Adam Garay, Luca Nardelli and Carson D’Ulisse. Great defensive plays were made by Paul Cacchione, Adam Garay and Chase Petrova to stop advancing runners and a great catch was made by Noah Faulkner, but the Junior Rookies came up short with a score of 10-8.
Co-players of the game are Chase Petrova and Noah Faulkner. Both boys had a good night with the bat and made some stellar plays in the field.
In their second playoff game against Aurora Men’s Slo-Pitch, bats were swinging and our team of sluggers were racking up runs with RBI hits from Nicolas Papayanakis, Carson D’Ulisse, Isaac Witten and Julian DePietro. Great defensive plays were made by Julian DePietro, Andrew Papaconstantinou and Paul Cacchione to tag runners out. Until the third inning team Armstrong Petroleum held the lead but ultimately fell short with a score of 14-9. Player of the game goes to Paul Cacchione who had an excellent night at the plate and made two key defensive plays that saved a few runs.
Despite this 0-2 playoff record, Armstrong Petroleum had high spirits going into game three. A big double hit from Paul Cacchione and an RBI from Carson D’Ulisse wasn’t enough to secure a win. Jr. Rookie team Armstrong Petroleum Ltd. lost with a score of 5-3 against Mastercut Property Services.
Player of the game goes to Andrew Papaconstantinou. Despite the team’s rough night at the plate, Andrew managed to chip in a base hit and a run score along with some good defense at first base.

Senior Rookie – Prism Painting

In their second playoff game of the season, the Cobras were at bat first and exploded with hits coming from the entire lineup. They mercied to the maximum 5 runs and the Cobras’ defence proceeded to shut down the Aurora squad at bat in the second.
But they didn’t stop there, they also mercied the 2nd and 3rd innings as well. Aurora made a valiant attempt to come back but the Cobras team was just too far ahead. Some big play mentions to Nicolas with 3 hits and 3RBIs, Noah G with 2 hits and 1 RBI, Jackson with 2 hits and 1 RBI, Ryder with 2 hits and 2 RBIs, and Frank Jr. just kept smashing his usual bombs. Gianluca took a hit on the hand at bat but that didn’t prevent him from getting a triple and 2 RBIs. Happy Feet Marco had 3 hits, trying to keep up with his brother Gianluca. In the 3rd, Foster went up to the plate with the speedy Noah Z at 1st. Foster smashed a hit to the outfield and the race was on. Noah rounded 3rd base heading for home and the throw came in fast at the plate with Noah sliding at home plate and beating out the tag. Foster ended with a Triple and 2 RBIs.
The Prism Cobras were just on fire in a great game! Final score was 19-5.
In their next game, the Prism crew was leading 7-1 after the bottom of the second before hometown rivals In This Corner Bar & Grille Cobras rallied to tie the game. Just as Prism was set to mount their comeback, lightning postponed the game.

Peewee – Sports International

August 18 saw the King Cobras Sports International Peewees face off against Aurora Invis Mortgage in a playoff game.
The Cobras started with a solid hit to left field by Tanner Charlton, then Justin Topp hit to centre and Cameron Kokelj hit a single bringing in the fifth run. Owen Witten pitched the first inning and had three strikeouts. It was an exciting second inning at bat. Justin and Tanner both hit singles and Nicholas Petrungaro hit a home run that brought in three runs. Owen pitched another great inning and again had three strike outs.
The third inning the bats were hot for the King Cobras Sports International Team. Owen Witten hit a double out to centre field bringing in two runs. Patrick Buffa and Christopher Petrungaro each hit solid singles. Ethan Lane had a great steal at home plate that ended the inning at five runs. Patrick Buffa pitched the third inning and had two strikeouts. In the fourth inning at bat Patrick had a nice double and Christopher stole home. Defensively Justin Topp pitched a strong fourth inning.
Player of the game goes to Tanner Charlton for his solid hitting. The final score was 19-7 for King Cobras.
Nicholas Petrungaro led the King Cobras Sports International Pee Wee team to another win on Wednesday, with solid pitching from Justin Topp, Patrick Buffa and Owen Witten with a combined total of 7 strikeouts and excellent fielding, keeping the runs low for the Aurora Cowen ReMax team. Nicholas Petrungaro established himself in the first inning by hitting a ball that hasn’t landed yet with the bases loaded, hitting his first grand slam of the season and earning 5 RBIs on the game. Cam Kokelj also had 2 hard singles and 2 RBIs.
Highlights also include a hit by Chris Petrungaro, excellent eye at the plate by Ethan Lane and Tanner Charlton with several walks. Player of the game goes to Nicholas Petrungaro for his grand slam and great work behind the plate.

Mosquito – RCC Waterproofing

The RCC Wterproofing Cobras took on Aurora in their third playoff game. The team entered the game with a 1-1 record.
They got off to a slow start and came into the top of the fourth inning trailing 7-5. David Pagliaroli took the mound and got the green light to throw some heat. The infield was led by back catcher Lorenzo Rossi, Marcus Cohen, Jake Falbo, Jacob Diamond and Luke Pella who all did a commendable job holding the Aurora team scoreless.
The Cobras entered the bottom of the fourth with a lead walk off by Luke Parolin, followed by Zachary Perruzza, Kieran Purves, Gregory Aloia, Ryan Hall and Daniel Marini. With the bases loaded, Jonathan DiGiorgio steps up to the plate after being intentionally walked in the second. He took full opportunity of the pitch and with a 2-2 count he hit a grand slam – the first this season for the RCC Waterproofing Cobras!
Cobras took home a 15-7 victory.

Mosquito – Omnivex

The King Omnivex mosquitoes played their second playoff game at home against Aurora’s Praish Home Inspections.
In the first, pitcher Michael Critelli had a good outing on the mound by only giving up one run. He made two heads-up plays by scooping up two grounders and made great throws to Emily Cacchione at first to get two outs and keep Aurora at bay. King showed good patience at the mound managed to score 5 runs to take the lead 5-1. In the second, Willaim Swanson had a great outing, by retiring 3 out of 4 batters faced, with two strikeouts and a ground out to first baseman Michael Critelli. In the second Aurora showed strong defence of their own and King only managed to score one run to extend their lead 6-1. Aurora got their offence together in the third as they managed to score 5 runs.
With bases loaded Chris Petruro stepped up to the plate and blasted the ball deep in centre field and hustled around the bases to get an inside the park grand slam! Unfortunately King’s defence struggled in the fourth as Aurora scored 9 runs to take the lead 15-11. King then got shut out in the bottom of the fourth and Aurora went on to win it 16-12 after 5 innings.
In their next playoff game, King’s Omnivex played host to Aurora’s Legallais Veterinary Hospital. In the first Aurora tried to start the game with a big lead, but great defensive plays by Mauricio Prieto Ordonez, and William Swanson kept them to only 3 runs. Omivex took the lead in the bottom of the first 5-3 with the help of a two run triple by Chris Petruro. The second inning was scoreless for both teams.
In the third Aurora started to rally back, but great defensive plays by Ben Wright and Emily Cacchione held them at only two runs. In the bottom, Chris got another big hit to double to score two runs, and King took the lead 8-5. The fourth inning was a long an tough one for Omnivex, as Aurora scored 12 runs, however, King would not give up as they managed to score 7 runs of their own, but due to time, the game was called and the score would revert back to the third inning.
In the end the 19 runs scored in the fourth meant nothing as the final score was 8-5 for King.
In their next game, a rematch from Thursday, Omnivex played Legallais Veterinary Hospital on Saturday, this time in Town Park. However, this game was completely different than Thursday’s game.
Omnivex got shut down quickly, and Aurora scored 5 runs in the first. Omnivex tried to get something going in the second, but could only score one run from an RBI single by Chris Petruro to bring in William Swanson. In the bottom, Aurora continued to show strong offence as they scored 4 more runs. Omnivex tried to get something going in the third with an RBI double by Massimo Amodio to bring in Christian Polygenis, but only another run by Mauricio Prieto Ordonez would later come around to score. Aurora would not let up in the third and continued to pound the ball often as they scored 5 more runs to extend their lead to 14-3.
The fourth inning would be Omnivex’s last chance to come back. They managed to get Jeffery Long to come into score and an RBI single by Max Monopoli would bring in Emily Cacchione, but they couldn’t get anything more than that, and they would lose 17-5 to conclude their season. Omnivex had a great season, the team always gave it their all and they had a lot of fun, and that’s what’s important.
Thank you to all the coaches for putting in your time to coach and help the kids get better at baseball. Also a big thank you to the parents for always being there to support the team.