Stamford Firefighters Win Babe Ruth City Championship

From Butler Associates, LLC:

At Cubetta Stadium, under the lights in steady rain on Monday, July 4, the Stamford Firefighters defeated the number one seeded Stamford Forge 8-5 to claim the Babe Ruth 14/15 city championship.

Thomas Butler got the nod to pitch for the Firefighters and didn’t disappoint, throwing 93 pitches over six innings of work with nine strikeouts while giving up four earned runs. Behind the plate, catcher Billy Schanter caught a solid game.

Forge’s number-one starting pitcher, Danny D’Andrea, took to the mound, leaving the game with an apparent arm injury after an inning and a third, while giving up three runs. Matthew Mogrovejo would relieve D’Andrea, pitching through the fifth inning, while giving up five runs. Max Decker went on to finish the outing for Forge, pitching a scoreless sixth.

The Firefighters quickly jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning after Brayden Davis came around home after a wild pickoff attempt at first and then another wild throw at third.

After Forge tied the game at one apiece off an RBI single by Michael Berlingo, and Ben Servidio knocked in two in the second to give the Firefighters a 3-1 lead. Butler would then smash a three run home run over the left fielder to put his team up by five.

Forge would manage to get within two after a Ryan Kennedy single, a Max Decker double and a Kyle Busch-Alswanger single.

With the score 7-4 heading into the bottom half of the fifth, Butler once again blasted a ball over the left fielder for a triple and scored as an errant throw allowed him to come around to home plate, putting the game away for good.

Relief pitcher Jimmy Murray came into the game in the seventh inning to earn the save and lock down the Babe Ruth 14/15 the city championship for the Firefighters.

The Stamford Firefighters finish the season with a record of 13-4 and were the only team to defeat Forge, who finished at 15-2.

Butler’s performance in the championship game earned him championship game MVP honors, according to Firefighters head coach David Wilburn.