JOHNSTOWN —
Normally the offensive output from the New York Long Island Astros over the final four innings of Thursday’s game at Fichtner Field at Johnstown Middle School would have been enough to keep the club alive in the AAABA Tournament.
Thursday’s 19-14 win by the New Orleans Boosters was anything but normal. New Orleans built a 9-0 lead over the first
51/2 innings while starter Nathan Fury held New York hitless. When the Boosters went to the bullpen to start the sixth, the Astros scored 14 times to close out the wild affair.
The teams combined for
32 hits and drew 21 walks after starting the game more than three hours past the intended start time thanks to showers that blanketed the area early Thursday morning.
Blake Butera’s four hits and five RBIs paced the Boosters, who got four hits and four RBIs from Joe Broussard and three-hit, three-RBI performances from Chad Gough-Fortenberry and Scott Fabre.
“That was the one good thing about playing so long was that we were able to get our guys a lot of at-bats,” New Orleans manager Bill Babin said.
“That’s always a good thing.”
In building the 9-0 lead, the Boosters relied on Fury to keep the Astros at bay. In five no-hit frames Fury struck out six and walked four before Babin lifted him.
“Our goal here is to win the championship, and Nate knows that,” Babin said. “We got him out with the hope that he can come back if we make it to Saturday.”
Following Fury’s departure after the fifth inning, New York greeted reliever Corey Thomas in the sixth by tagging him for four runs on four hits, with Mike Cunningham, Ryan Rusoff and P.J. Lenz driving in runs via singles. Tom Scala broke up the no-hit bid with one gone in the sixth when he legged out an infield single to shortstop.
“We got our bats going (in the sixth),” New York manager Jeffrey Rusoff said. “We couldn’t really touch (Fury). He was overpowering with a good fastball and good slider, and he shut our bats down in those five innings.”
New Orleans replied with five runs in the seventh with Gough-Fortenberry driving in a run before catcher Angelo Bruno chased in two with a double to deep center. Butera’s single a batter later gave the Boosters a 14-4 lead.
New York stayed alive in the bottom of the seventh, as Peter Magistrale drove in a pair of runs.
Fabre’s two-run double to center along with run-producing singles from Gough-Fortenberry and Broussard ran the New Orleans lead to 18-6 in the eighth. New York rallied for five runs to force the ninth inning by sending 11 batters to the plate and using two bases-loaded walks to bring in a pair of runs.
Beau Boudreaux singled in Harold Tuscano to make it 19-11.
The Astros plated three more runs to set the final with Magistrale driving in two runs with a base hit to right.
While New York’s comeback fell short, the never-say-die effort was typical of what the squad had shown all season.
“We fell behind (9-0) and we battled back to make it a close game over the last few innings,” Rusoff said. “We fought hard to make it a close ballgame. We made it a nice fight, but we came up a bit short.”
New Orleans is scheduled to play Chicago Metro at Point Stadium at 10 a.m. today.
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