WESTFIELD – The No. 6 seed in the A bracket battled throughout the Monday/Wednesday division‘s regular season all summer, finishing with a 20-9 record, two games behind the top two teams in the standings. The league with four teams over 20 wins showed its prowess once again Wednesday night, as Micro defeated No. 1 Rampage of the Tuesday/Friday league, 17-7 in six innings, to claim the championship.
Joining Maple Leaf as the second divisional team to win a championship in the span of two weeks, Micro defeated Rampage for the second time in as many meetings, outscoring the top seed 35-9 to finish the tournament with a 4-0 record, the lone undefeated team of the A bracket.
Micro Abrasives defeated Rampage 18-2 in three innings last week in the winner’s bracket semifinal to clinch their spot in the championship on the back of an 11-run first inning to give them an insurmountable lead. Rampage rebounded one game later, scoring three times in the bottom of the seventh to eliminate Berkshire Industries/Firtion Adams.
Wednesday had a similar result for the No. 6 seed, but Rampage jumped out to a 7-2 lead after two and a half innings and held Micro to five hits. The home team managed to scrape away and cut the deficit to three after Eric Searles blasted a two-run home run to right field. With the momentum and a 1-2-3 fourth inning in the field to follow, Micro’s potent offense erupted in the bottom of the fourth, plating 10 runs to take a 14-7 lead.
Searles and Colby Blasenak’s home run power that helped the offensive outbursts all postseason fueled the big inning once again, with Blasenak belting a three-run home run to left field in an inning which saw 11 of the first 12 batters cross home plate. Starting pitcher Paul St. Pierre lined a two-run single to give Micro their first lead and Mike Ruffo, Steve Halloran, Tim Cranson, Joe Jachym and Mike Ligenza each added a RBI of their own in the fourth inning.
Micro sealed the game in the final two innings, tacking on three runs on two swings to clinch the mercy rule. Paul St. Pierre drove in his third run of the game in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly to score Chris Bennett, but Halloran also scored when the relay throw skipped away from the Rampage catcher. The home team used its final home run to clinch the title, with Blasenak crushing a no-doubter over the left field fence to give Micro the championship.
