Under a beautiful summer sky at Langone Park, the Hill House Red Sox won the 2014 Little League Championship over the NEAA Cubs by the score of 10-4 in a well-played game. The Red Sox were led on the mound by Paxton Wong, who pitched 4 strong innings of hitless ball, allowing 3 walks, while striking out 7. Eric Palace pitched the final 2 innings in relief, striking out 4 and holding the feisty Cubs bats to 2 hits and 4 runs. The Red Sox offense was paced by Lukas Towns Franken, Nico Berger and Scotch Wilson, who had 2 hits apiece, while Paxton Wong, Eric Palace & Mark Madeja each had timely extra base hits.
The Sox got out to a 10-0 lead before the Cubs mounted a rally. In the fifth inning Joe Bova drew a walk and worked his way to third and stole home for the Cubs first run. In the six inning the Cubs top of the order pressed again. Rich Bova drew his 2nd walk and scored when Peter Shea drove a shot down the left field line for a sliding triple. With Francis Shea at the plate, Peter Shea also stole home and a Cubs rally was underway. Francis single and scored on catcher John Paul Giorgio’s sacrifice hit cutting the lead to 10-4. But Palace calmly went back to work and got two more outs to set off a wild Red Sox celebration on the mound as they were crowned champions.
Congratulations to all players on a fantastic season.
