A Rip City 13-and-under travel baseball team Sunday celebrates a tournament championship in New York.
TROY, N.Y. — Ryder Froio hit .714 in five games last week to lead a 13-and-under travel team from Pittsfield’s Rip City to a tournament championship.
Rip City went 3-0 in pool play, beating its opponents by a combined 40-5, and then won the Last Man Standing Tournament’s semi-final and final in bracket play to claim the title.
“These guys cruised through pool play, then faced some adversity in the single-elimination games as we had to play back-to-back games ona very hot day on Sunday afternoon,” coach Rick Paris said.
Lador Lawson, like Froio, had a strong tournament at the plate, going .636 with three doubles.
In the championship game, Froio went 6 and a third innings on the mound on short rest, striking out four in a 10-9 win over the [Saratoga Springs] Spa City Stallions.
Lawson got the win on the mound with two-thirds of an inning pitched.
“Ryder is a workhorse,” Paris said. “I tried taking him out after four innings, and he talked me into letting him stay in since he had a very efficient fifth. HE again had a great fifth, but I could tell he was getting tired, as they all were.
“But he wanted the ball, so I left him in, but unfortunately once the tying run came up, I had to pull him. We then made an error, combined with three walks and went down for only the second time in the tournament.”
Froio then ignited the game-winning rally in the bottom of the seventh, drawing a walk.
With one out, Andrew Scalise singled to right to put runners at the corners. Lawson then doubled to left field to tie the game and put runners at second and third.
Spa City intentionally walked Ryker Williams, and Sebastian Ricchi hit a walkoff single to give his team the championship.
Jeremiah Bullet had three hits, including a double, in the championship win. Mateo Herrera added two hits, including a double, and Bradley Charo and Thomas Kuzdeba each drove in three runs.