Baseball / Brother's Baseball club finishes second at Albany tournament

Brother's Baseball club finishes second at Albany tournament

Date:  Source: George Donnelly Sunset League
First, a thank you to the teams who participated and kept their patience during the chaos of adjusting the schedule due to the rain Saturday. Thanks to Kevin Rogers of South Troy, we were able to squeeze a game in at Geer Field to alleviate the schedule. 
 
Second, a thank you to the City of Schenectady, Mayor McCarthy, Bill Macejka and the city workers who went above and beyond to prepare the fields, ammenities, and ensure players and fans had a great experience. Only big things are coming for Central Park in the near future and all these people are a key to the Baseball Fest success. 
 
Also a key to the success are the volunteers working game sites including my father Larry Altieri who has worked all 19 years of the tournament, in addition to Ryan Havlik, Connor Greenbaum, RJ Pingitore, and others who chipped in. 
 
A thank you to Gabe Rodriguez for his photography and also setting up a food truck as a a great amenity for fans and teams. 
 
Thank you to the following who donated directly to the American Cancer Society with a check or cash over the weekeend:  Gerry Marzilli, Brothers BB Club, Chuck Thorne, Eastern NY Umpires Association, Mark Fitch, Dale Wotherspoon, Scott Paul, Schdy Ole Timers Association, David Matson, Albany Athletics BB Club.
 
The app Tourney Machine has all the tournament scores on it as well. 
 
 
WILD PITCH IN BOTTOM OF 7th INNING PROPELS A's OVER REIGNING CHAMPION BROTHERS BASEBALL CLUB
 
19th Annual Albany Athletics Baseball Fest
Central Park Buck Ewing Field
 
CHAMPIONSHIP       1  2  3  4  5  6    7    R  H  E
Brothers BB Club        0  0  0  0  0   1  0   1   5  0
Albany Athletics          1  0  0  0  0   0  1   2   4  0
   BRO: Lawrence and Hevenor
   ALB: Ferrarese, Salamida (6) and Mastroianni
 
Dan Barbero singled to lead off the bottom of the 7th and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch with one out to lift the Albany Athletics to a 2-1 victory over Brothers Baseball Club of Warwick, RI and in the process win their 11th Baseball Fest title since 2000.  (PHOTO ATTACHED OF THE GAME WINNING RUN)  The game was a rematch of the 2007, 2013 and 2017 Baseball Fest Championship. 
 
The A's got on the board in the first inning when Cam Overbaugh singled and also came around to eventually score on a wild pitch. Albany held a 1-0 lead until one out in the 6th when Brothers got a solo homerun from Tyler Walsh, who hit his third home run of the day (1 in each of three games), to tie it 1-1. 
 
Brothers righthander Skip Lawrence scattered four hits and didn't give up a hit from the second through sixth innings. He fanned two batters in the loss.  Meanwhile, the A's got a stellar performance from righthander Dino Ferrarese who went 5.1 innings, struck out four, gave up four hits, and yielded one earned run. However, he had to give way to A's closer Chris Salamida after the Walsh homer followed by a single in the 6th. Salamida stopped any further rally in the 6th inning then, after a leadoff double in the top of the 7th, he induced a groundout then fanned the final two hitters to end the inning. 
 
Salamida was named Tournament MVP for hitting .400, driving in seven runs, scoring three runs and picking up the win in 1.2 innings of relief. 
 
 
SEMIFINAL #1 vs #4 
The A's earned the #1 seed with an undefeated pool play record and upended the #4 seeded Thruway Aces 11-1 in their semifinal. Salamida doubled and drove in two while Overbaugh singled twice and Nate Novak hit a three-run homer.  Lefthander JJ Pearsall went the distance and struck out two and gave up just four hits in the win.  
 
BOX                    1  2  3  4  5  6   7     R  H  E
Thruway Aces     0  1  0  0  0  0   0     1   4   0
Albany Athletics  3  0  2  5   1  0  x     11  7   0
   THRU: Ponticello, Caddy (5) and Dunkel
   ALB: Pearsall and Barbero
 
 
SEMIFINALS #2 vs #3
#2 seeded Brothers was playing their third game of the day--the Final in addition to a pool play game and a semifinal that went 12 innings when Robert Reyes hit a walk off single for a 3-2 win over the South Troy Dodgers (#3 seed). Despite Brothers being held to three hits in the win, Walsh made them count with a two-run homer to tie the game in the 5th inning.  Brothers played 26 innings of baseball on the day. 
 
POOL PLAY GAMES FROM 9 am
South Troy Dodgers  9 
Thruway Aces           1
 
Thruway Railcats      10
Twin Town Devilcats   4
 
Brothers BB Club    11
Albany Thunder      1
 
FINAL STANDINGS: 
Athletics   4-0 / 21-4 overall
Brothers   3-2 / 10-4 overall
Dodgers   2-2 / 12-6 overall
Aces         1-3 / 2-10 overall
Thunder    1-3 / 4-11 overall
Devilcats   1-2 / 11-6 overall
Railcats     1-2 / 6-5 overall
Mariners    1-1 / 14-2 overall