Williston Park wins World Series!                            (Previous Article: Williston Times 11-8-2002 Back Page Article)

The Williston Park Little League 9/10 year-old Tournament Team finished their magical run this past Saturday (November 9th) by defeating the Yorkville Patriots from Manhattan to win the NY Metro Diamond Pro’s World Series! Williston Park was trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the 6^th in game-1, and needed 8 innings in game-2, but they rallied to take both games from Yorkville and win the prestigious 2002 Fall World Series.

This World Series Championship is a tremendous achievement for the town of Williston Park considering that the Fall Tournament included twenty-four of the top 9/10 year-old tournament teams from the NY Metro Area including Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Long Island, and Stamford, CT.

In Game-1 of the best 2-of-3 World Series, Williston Park started their ace pitcher Chris Serrano, while Yorkville started their ace lefthander. The game was a scoreless 0-0 pitcher’s duel through 5 innings. Yorkville then scored in the top of the 6^th to take a 1-0 lead and Williston Park needed a run in the bottom of the 6^th to stay alive. With the Williston Park fans cheering and the Williston Park players wearing their rally caps, Danny Martinucci led off the bottom of the 6^th with an infield single. Casey Cunningham and Chris Serrano then both followed with singles to load the bases. Yorkville then brought their infield in and John Quinn hit a slow grounder to 2^nd base, but Danny Martinucci beat the throw to the plate and the game was tied at 1-1. With the Williston Park fans going wild, Jimmy Bulva then stepped to the plate and hit a line drive single to right field to win the first game of the World Series for Williston Park 2-1. The game also included the fine defense of Peter Aiello, Nick Berardi, and Tommy Ward.

In Game-2, Williston Park jumped off to an early 4-0 lead on singles by Matt Lanfair, Danny Martinucci, Casey Cunningham, Chris Serrano, and Jimmy Bulva. Yorkville then changed pitchers and rallied to get 3 runs to narrow the lead to 4-3 after 3 innings. Williston Park held the 4-3 lead until two outs and two strikes on the batter in the bottom of the 6^th inning. Yorkville then got a clutch RBI single to tie the game at 4-4 and send the game into extra innings. In the top of the 7^th, Williston Park took the lead on singles by Chris Serrano, Matt Goodrich, and Jimmy Bulva; but Yorkville responded again and scored a run in the bottom of the 7^th to tie the game at 5-5. Yorkville then had the bases loaded with 1-out and a 3-0 count on the batter but Williston Park pitcher Danny Martinucci got out of the intense jam with a fine defensive play by Jimmy Ward and a strikeout to end the inning. In the top of the 8^th, Williston Park again took the lead by scoring 2 runs on singles by Matt Lanfair and Danny Martinucci, an intentional walk to Chris Serrano to load the bases, and a clutch 2-RBI single by Matt Goodrich. In the bottom of the 8th, Yorkville was determined to not give up when they got the tying runs on 2nd and 3rd base with two outs. The Yorkville leadoff hitter then hit a line drive down the 1st base line. The Williston Park 1st baseman (Matt Goodrich) dove, stopped the ball, the batter raced for 1st base, the tying runner rounded 3rd base on his way to the plate, Matt Goodrich couldn’t get to his feet but he crawled and dove on 1st base, a split second before the batter, to get the third out and win the World Series for Williston Park!

The Williston Park 9/10 Tournament Team finished the 2002 Tournament Season with a 31-5 record, which included the Williston Park Mayor’s Trophy Championship, the Glen Cove Mayor’s Trophy Championship, and now the Diamond Pro’s World Series Championship!

All Williston Park Little League game information, scheduling, and results can be found at the official web site at www.wpsports.org.

Copyright © 2000-2006    SJS5.com    All Rights Reserved.