Bronco Indians Outscore Dodgers

With a chance to face the Red Sox for the Bronco Division championship on the line, the Indians and Dodgers played a game to remember Tuesday on Field 2 at the Palisades Recreation Center’s Field of Dreams complex. The Indians built a 7-1 lead over the first two innings. The Dodgers rallied for six runs in the top of the third inning, but the Indians eventually prevailed,13-10, to advance to the finals against the Red Sox. ‘We’ve been winning close, low-scoring games all season, so this was a bit surprising,’ said Indians coach Steve Skolnik, who guided his 11 to 13-year-old Indians to the best record of any team in PPBA during the regular season. We gave up a lot of runs but fortunately we got some big hits too.’ The Indians stranded 13 runners in a 5-1 loss to the Red Sox in the second round of the playoffs. The two teams played Wednesday (result not available at press time) and if the Indians won the two teams will play a decisive game today at 4:30 p.m. ‘This was an exciting ball game and we had out chances,’ Dodgers coach Alan Preston said. ‘It’s disappointing to lose but I think our players had a lot of fun playing and they didn’t give up. Conner [Preston] smoked the ball three times, Chris Aronson played great at second base and Adam Christiana stole six bases for us. Everyone did a nice job.’ The game was tied 8-8 in the fifth inning Luke Mullan hit a leadoff single for the Indians and scored the go-ahead run on Eli Redman’s ground ball. A groundout by Nate Redman advanced his brother to third, Gunnar Kohl walked and Daniel Edelstein singled to score Eli Redman for a 10-8 lead. David Skolnik then doubled to the center field fence to drive in two more runs and later scored on a wild pitch for a 13-8 lead. Preston ripped a double over the third-base bag to pull the Dodgers within 13-10 with one out in the top of the sixth inning, but David Skolnik, younger brother of Palisades High baseball players Matt and Sam Skolnik, struck out the final two batters to end the game. Mustang (Ages 10-11) Zach Hernandez scored the go-ahead run for the Tigers in the bottom of the fifth inning on an infield single by Michael Sullivan and Brandon Newman added an insurance run on a hit by Sam Wasserman as the Tigers advanced to the finals with a 5-3 victory over the Indians. The game began as pitchers duel between left-handers Austin Kamel of the Tigers and Tommy Sanford of the Indians. After Kamel singled to score Newman and Tyler Steil in the bottom of the first inning, both pitchers settled down and each had three strikeouts over the next two innings. Right-handers Sullivan for the Tigers and Jayenth Subrahmanyan for the Indians took over in the fourth inning. Andy Currier reached base all three times he batted and scored the Indians’ last run on a hit by catcher Leo Abbe-Schneider in the sixth inning. The Indians tied the game, 2-2, in the top of the fifth inning when a single by Justin Stein scored Jack Clausen. John Frachiolla played well at third base for the Indians, who had upset the Tigers earlier in the playoffs. ‘This was a great game,’ Tigers coach Brian Sullivan said. ‘I thought both teams played great. Austin and Michael did a great job pitching for us and their catcher Leo [Abbe-Schneider] did a great job keeping us from stealing.’ The Tigers played the Braves, who won the other bracket, Wednesday and if the Tigers won they will play the Braves again today on Field 3 for the division championship. Pinto (Ages 7-9) In a tense defensive struggle, Peter Tilden tripled down the first base line to score Matt Zeiden and Dawson Rosenberg with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning and the Tigers held to beat the Phillies 2-1 on Field 4. Rosenberg at short stop at Tyler Newman at second base played great defense to keep the Tigers in front. ‘I’m really proud of the kids,’ Tigers coach Joe Rosenberg said. ‘We were the American League champions, but we lost to the Red Sox in the playoffs and now we have another shot at them.’