Eastchester's McNamara Too Much For Harrison

Conor McNamara blasted a three-run home run over the left field wall in the bottom of the first inning, giving Eastchester all the offense they would need to defeat Harrison 3 - 0 in the District 20 Little League championship game Tuesday in Harrison.

The eventual winning runs were setup by a leadoff double by Christian Rosell, followed by a Tak Miki walk. McNamara then lifted an off-speed pitch over the wall for the game's first and only runs.

"He knows how to sit on a curveball, he sat on it and he crushed it," said Eastchester coach Frank Calabro. "He did exactly what we needed to do, get us off to a good start."

The 12-year-old then took to the mound, where he silenced a potent Harrison offense with a complete game shutout. Harrison had blasted an impressive 24 home runs in six previous games in the 11-12 year-old tournament, but managed only two hits in six innings against McNamara.

"It was completely awesome, I got to give a hats off to him, the kid is an amazing pitcher," said Harrison coach Eric Bratberg.

Harrison had rattled off five wins in 10 days to reach the finals in the double-elimination tournament. They needed to defeat Eastchester twice to win the championship, but fell short in the first game despite an impressive effort from an exhausted pitching staff. The young Huskies used two relief pitchers Tuesday with the hopes of forcing a second game on Wednesday.

After getting out of trouble in the first inning Harrison starting pitcher Daniel Klein rebounded by striking out the side in the second inning and recording another strikeout in the third before he was relieved by Frank Evangelista. Evangelista struck out four Eastchester batters in 2 2/3 innings of shutout baseball.

"These are games they're going to remember for the rest of their lives," said Bratberg. "Big strikouts, we got out of a lot of big spots."

On the other side McNamara was dominant, a third inning single by Robert Donahue and a seventh inning knock by A.J Lovallo proved to be Harrison's only hits. The Eastchester ace struck out seven Harrison batters in the complete game shutout.

Both teams were familiar with each other, they met in the 9-10 year-old championship game two years ago and faced-off again at the 11 and under level. Both times Eastchester knocked off Harrison with strong pitching and defense.

"This is almost like Red Sox-Yankees," said Bratberg. "We've been battling since we were 10 years old."

Calabro said this is the first time Eastchester has won the 11-12 Little League championship in District 20 since 1997. He has coached the same group of kids to district championships the last three years, but said Tuesday's victory at the 11-12 level was a huge accomplishment.

"They had a lot of pressure on them to come through," Calabro said.

There were no errors and only one noticeable miss-play during Tuesday's game, impressive for the 11-12 level. Calabro said this is typical for his team, which used strong pitching and defense to sail through the district tournament undefeated. The Eastchester pitching staff had already notched a no-hitter and a 15 strikeout game earlier in the tournament.

Harrison, on the other hand, continued to battle despite the early deficit. Bratberg said he was proud of his players, especially his pitchers, for never giving up.

"A hit here, a hit there, it changes the whole game," he said. "He (McNamara) pitched one better—and that's baseball."