CLIFTON PARK – Brandon Peda wears No. 1 on his Guilderland Babe Ruth uniform, but on Wednesday night he became No. 1 in the heart of hundreds of fans in the Capital Region when his bloop single scored Nick Chiseri in the bottom of the ninth inning to put Guilderland into the 13-year-old Babe Ruth World Series semifinal Thursday with a 4-3 win over Meridian, Idaho.
Bulldog pinch-hitter Kristian Singh reached on a one-out single and advanced on Jack Grabek’s single. After hitting a line drive that was snared by a ranging centerfielder two innings earlier, he blooped a shot over the second baseman’s head.
“The first one I got a good piece of it,” Peda said. “The second one I missed a little, but I got the bat on it and it got through. It doesn’t matter, as long as we win the game.”
Guilderland will now face the Clifton Park Bulldogs, tentatively, at 5 p.m. Thursday. Clifton Park earned the No. 1 seed in the division and had a bye to the semifinal.
Meridian, Idaho took an early 3-0 lead, damping the spirits of the Guilderland fans.
Blake McFadden walked; Talen Kraft stroked an RBI double for the 1-0 lead in the first inning.
The Pacific Northwest champions tacked on two more when McFadden led off with a single and scored on Kraft’s RBI double. Hunter Weindel followed with his own RBI double, driving in Kraft for the 3-0 lead.
Guilderland wasn’t about to go away quietly, Brandon Das reached on a walk to open the bottom of the sixth inning. Peda hit a single and Cameron Long hit an RBI single, driving in Das. Kristian Singh knotted the score at three apiece with his two RBI double, driving in Peda and Long.
“We started out very slow, didn’t have a lot of energy,” Guilderland coach Brian Grabek said. “When they started to make changes (defensively, pitching) we did what we do best. We focused on what we could do.”
Guilderland’s pitching duo of Matt Pierce and Singh weren’t fazed by the extra frames, sending down Meridian in order each of the final five innings, setting up Peda.
“He’s my number three batter and the guy I want up in that situation,” Grabek said. “The first time was a line shot, that’s the type of player he is.”
The Guilderland victory sets up a dogfight between the Clifton Park Bulldogs and the Guilderland Bulldogs at 5 p.m.

Catch the play-by-play webcast with Chris, Reda and Stan on site above the field on Cover It LIve.

See the swings, hits and misses from the quarterfinal with video streaming provided by Babe Ruth TV.