District 12 Baseball
By: Steve Feitl
The Lawrence 12-year old all-stars are off to the elimination round of the District 12 Little League Tournament.
The Lawrence boys are 3-1 and the second seed in Pool B after the first weekend of play. They now will enter the "Elite Eight" with a game scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Friday against an undefeated Ewing squad.
The game will be played at the HTRBA fields near the AMC Theatre on Sloan Avenue in Hamilton.
Lawrence tied with Nottingham with a 3-1 record in Pool B, but Nottingham won the tie-breaker based on its 3-1 victory over Lawrence in the first game of the tournament Friday.
In the game, coach Ed Miller noted that the team’s No. 1 pitcher Tom Tesauro "pitched well despite the loss."
But that was the Lawrence boys’ last loss up until this point of the tournament.
The next day, Lawrence got back on track with a 7-4 win over HTRBA. Dan Ciccone and Tim Miller each contributed two hits, while Brian Mills had the go-ahead RBI.
"Our pitching has been exceptional," said Ed Miller, who serves as a coach along with Joe Marx under manager Gary Mills. "Tim Miller pitched very well in the HTRBA game. He let in some runs early, but didn’t allow a run the rest of the way. We then were able to claw our way back and we beat them."
Lawrence then showed its fortitude with a gritty 6-5 win over Princeton on Sunday.
Down 5-1 with two outs in the sixth, Lawrence was the beneficiary of four straight walks which brought home two runs. Scott Avellino then drove in two more with a big two-out double that knotted the game at 5-5.
Hiroki Katsumata drove in the game-winning run with a single in the seventh inning and Lawrence won, 6-5.
Dan Ciccone scattered seven hits over his complete-game performance for the Lawrence squad.
But to guarantee themselves a spot in the elimination round, the Lawrence boys needed to duplicate their win over HTRBA this time at HTRBA’s home field on Monday.
Again Lawrence had to come from behind. Mills led off the fourth with a single as Lawrence was down, 2-1. He stole second and scored on HTRBA errors, tying the game at 2-2.
In the next inning, Miller knocked in the go-ahead run before Ciccone put the game away with a two-run single.
Tesauro was strong once again on the mound, striking out eight HTRBA batters and allowing just five hits.
"Tom Tesauro pitched a wonderful game for us," coach Miller said. "But the really special thing about this game was nine out of our 12 players got hits."
The 12-year old all-star squad is comprised of Scott Avellino, Connor Choi, Dan Ciccone, Jay Commini, Dan Hurley, Hiroki Katsumata, Chris Maple, Bob Marx, Dan McQuarrie, Tim Miller, Brian Mills and Tom Tesauro.