Mike Smith

On Saturday night at Roberto Clemente State Park, the New York Bulldogz won a wild one in extra innings to capture their first ever NYCMBL AA title. As the team doused each other in champagne on the pitchers mound, it was apparent that this win wasn’t just the result of the Dogz dedication this year. It was a championship that was a decade in the making.

            “A lot of us have been playing together for years,” explains coach Bobby Alvarez. “We won our first championship together when we were about 13 or 14 playing ball, so this was special.”

The Bulldogz victory came on an Alfi Hernandez walk-off, as Hernandez singled to left off Bandits reliever Mike Bukowski to break a 7-7 tie in the bottom of the ninth.  The Bulldogz swept the series 3-0, but it looked early on, as though the Bandits, facing elimination, might have a chance to stave off a sweep. Facing Bulldogz ace Bryan Collado in the first inning, the Bandits scored three runs off the reigning Cy Young, who left the game with stiffness in his elbow. Reuben Angeles came on in relief for the injured starter. The two teams would battle back and forth—with the Bulldogz even taking a four-run lead at one point, but Angeles pitched into extras for the win            “Reuben did a great job for us,” says Alvarez. “He also stepped up big for us in the Manhattan Bronx Championship, when we had another starter go down.”

The Bulldogz finished the regular season with a 20-7-2 record, good enough for the second seed, but this year, the squad didn’t let their seeding affect their performance, as they powered through a deep Bronx Manhattan playoff tree.

“Last year, we expected to win coming in, and we got beat,” admits Alvarez. “This year, we kept our heads down and just played hard. There are some great teams like the Rays and the Marlins who won last year.”

According to Alvarez, this first title is just the beginning.

“We’re going to be working over the winter, looking at guys that can help us and hope to come back and do this next year,” he says. “This team is like a family and it meant a lot to win it with them.”

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