Travel baseball squad tops Yorktown Heights
It took six seasons, four years of waiting and an inning that didn’t want to end, but the Cold Spring Generals 13U travel baseball team on Sunday (June 2) won its first league title.
The Generals, who compete in the Greater Hudson Valley Baseball League (GHVBL), defeated East Coast Athletics of Yorktown Heights, 8-5, in the D3 Gold Championship Bracket played in Danbury, Connecticut.
The title marks the club’s first since its founding in 2021 and the first appearance by any Philipstown team at any age level in a GHVBL championship game. In addition to its 13-and-under squad, Cold Spring fields 9U and 12U teams.
After jumping ahead, 3-1, in the second inning, the Generals added runs in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh to take an 8-2 lead.
The Athletics had one more at-bat; Oliver Herman, who took the mound for the Generals in the fifth inning, got the first hitter to fly out. But then things got interesting. After the second batter reached base on an error, Herman got another to fly out. But the runner tagged and scored to make it 8-3.
With two outs, the Athletics put another runner on due to another Generals error. A batter then dinged Herman for a line-drive double to make it 8-4. Three more singles made the score 8-5 with the bases loaded and the winning run at the plate.
Herman stood tough and, on a 1-1 count, induced a fly ball to left field, where Harry McGrory caught it to secure the title for the Generals.
The intense seventh followed a consistent performance at the plate by the Generals. After failing to score in the first, the club put three runs on the board in the second. Theo Swan and Aidan Kane each singled and, after a walk loaded the bases, Hudson Schacht’s RBI single scored Swan. Kane scored from third on a pitch that got by the catcher and Dylan Drew added an RBI line drive to center.
In the third, Kane hit an RBI single; in the fifth, Lughan McIlwaine scored on a fielder’s choice; and in the sixth McGrory came home after a wild pitch.
McIlwaine and Herman each scored in the top of the seventh on two more wild pitches.
McIlwaine started the game and threw four innings, striking out five batters and giving up one hit and two runs. Herman had two strikeouts while giving up three runs.
In the sixth, with Athletics runners on first and second and no outs, McGrory ended the inning with three consecutive outs at third base. First, he nabbed a grounder and made a diving play to touch the bag before the advancing runner. The Generals catcher, Drew, finished the frame by throwing out two consecutive runners as they attempted to steal third, with McGrory applying the tags.
