By STAN HUDY
shudy@saratogian.com
CLIFTON PARK – The Glen Allen, VA 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star team showed that they couldn’t be counted out, rallying from a 2-0 deficit to win its opening contest of the Babe Ruth World Series in Clifton Park, NY.
Glen Allen manufactured three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally past Atlantic Shore, New Jersey for a 3-2 victory.
“Our team came out very excited, nervous in the first inning or two, gave up a couple runs, but Kyle Battle did a great job pitching and held on,” Glen Allen manager Bill Mawyer said. “Atlantic Shore is an outstanding team. Their pitcher kept us down until the sixth inning we were able to patch together a few hits and score those three runs. They were able to mustered and come through.”
Noah Williams singled to left and Cole Blackman followed with a walk. Both runners moved over on a sacrifice bunt by Adam Collins. Bill Mawyer pushed both runners across the plate on an error by the shortstop, knotting the contest at two runs apiece.
Mawyer advanced on Ryan Hansen’s grounder and came around to score when a grounder by Charlie Staples was again mis-handled by the left side of the infield for the 3-2 lead.
With destiny in his hands, Glen Allen starter Kyle Battle allowed just a two-out double to R.J. Damico before getting a fly out to centerfield for the complete game victory.
“In the early innings I was really nervous about pitching in the World Series, I just had to focus and throw strikes,” Kyle Battle said. “About the third inning that’s when I started getting in through. The ball just goes where I wanted it to go.”
The win was a priority for Mawyer and his squad.
“I think we’ll sleep better, feel better tomorrow, we got that monkey off our back, winning a game at the World Series,” Mawyer said. “We’ll play our game and hopefully our nerves will settle down and you’ll really see the skills of our team.”
Atlantic Shore struck early as Zach Newman reached on a dropped third strike in the top of the first inning. He stole second base and came around to score on Nick Drobnicki’s hot shot to the shortstop that was mis-handled.
The Middle Atlantic Region champions struck again in the second after Matt Thomas led off with a single. He moved over on a walk by Kyle Gerace and scored on Anthony Boselli’s RBI single to left for the 2-0 lead, but couldn’t add to its lead and rushed to close out the contest.
“Just kind of happened, we were up the whole game and got a little anxious to get three outs in that last inning,” Boselli said. “Stuff happens, its baseball.”
Boselli said he was caught up in the excitement of the World Series.
“The first at-bat I had butterflies and swung out of my shoes,” Boselli said. “I lunged at it and in my second and third at-bat I just relaxed and stroked it.”
The opening round loss didn’t faze the Atlantic Shores skipper.
“The first game of every tournament we just seem to be in neutral,” manager Mike Gill said. “Today it looked like we were out of it, but we did in the third.
“We’ve had our backs to the wall in every tournament so we go back on our past experiences,” Gill said. “We had to win three in the states, were 2-2 in the region and won three there. Why should this be any different?”
Atlantic Shore gets the early wake-up call with a 10 a.m. tilt with Pacific Southwest champion Tri-Valley, California. Glen Allen will face Eastern New York State champion, Guilderland at 5 p.m.

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