Cape leads Senior LL title series
Given the talent level on his team, Cape Coral Senior Little League All-Star manager Chad Wyse knows his players are capable of making some great plays.
Wyse, though, was more concerned with them doing the fundamental things right in Monday’s District 9 Tournament championship series opener against Buckingham at Fleishman Park.
“Whoever makes the most errors is going to lose,” Wyse predicted beforehand. “That’s what this game will come down to.”
The manager proved to be correct as Cape Coral took advantage of four Buckingham errors in a 9-3 victory in the first game of a best-of-three series. The second game of the series is 7 p.m. Wednesday at Fleishman Park with the third game, if necessary, Thursday night.
Buckingham (2-2) made errors defensively to begin each of the first two innings and Cape built a 6-0 lead. A throwing error in the sixth plated two more runs. Cape (4-0), on the other hand, did not make an error.
Leadoff hitter Kelly Curran sparked Cape’s offensive attack with a two-run double to deep left in the second, and belted a solo home run in the fourth. Tyler Cardini had three hits, including an RBI single in the first.
“We’re all a team,” said Curran, 16, who attends Ida Baker High School. “We just came out here and executed well and kept it together.”
The Cape Coral team is made up of All-Star players from the four senior league teams (ages 14-16) that played at Cape Coral Sports Complex during the regular season.
They went 3-0 in pool play and now lead 1-0 in the championship series.
Cape’s run has been highlighted by two grand slams. They trailed Fort Myers American 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh, but got a grand slam from Cody Tilden to win the game 4-3.
Cardini connected for a grand slam in a 12-9 win over Buckingham in the final pool play game.
Curran nearly added a third with the bases loaded in the second inning Monday, but settled for a two-run double, which put Cape up 4-0.
Michael Watson’s sacrifice fly and Steve Nason’s RBI single in the second pushed the lead to six.
Buckingham cut the lead to 6-3 with one run in the third and two more in the fourth. They loaded the bases on three walks in the fourth and Tyler Greenwell delivered a two-run single.
Just when it appeared Cape had lost its momentum, Curran led off the bottom of the fourth with a blast to right center.
“I never go up there trying to hit a home run,” Curran said. “I just tried to relax and put it somewhere.”
Cape made the lead hold up and in the process, kept all of their pitchers available for Wednesday’s game. They used five different pitchers – Daniel Hale, Charlie Klein, Evan Kelly, Tilden and Watson. Since none of them went over 35 pitches they can return the next game.
“We didn’t even use all of our pitchers in this game,” Wyse said. “We have good depth.”
Buckingham 001 200 0 – 3 4 4
Cape Coral 240 102 x – 9 8 0
W – Danny Hale. L – David Itterly.
2B – Kelly Curran (C). HR – Curran (C).