With three outs the only thing keeping Ridley Area from its first ever Pa. state Little League championship, pitcher Michael Floirendo stared down his catcher’s glove and waited for the sign.
Two strikeouts and a groundout later, the entire Ridley team came rushing to a spot halfway between the pitcher’s mound and home plate to dogpile on one another after putting the finishing touches on an 8-2 victory over Lehigh (3-2) Sunday afternoon, with Ridley (4-0) getting out to its trademarked hot start and then shutting down its opponent late.
“I’m just so proud of these boys and the coaching staff and the whole Ridley Area program,” manager John Scanlan said of Ridley, which had its 11-and 12-year old team make the state finals three years ago when Bradford was also the host. “This is the first time we’ve ever won, and we’ve only been in this position twice.”
Ridley became champions because of its all-around team effort, but its offensive attack set the tournament standard. Playing in the minimum of four games, Ridley ripped through the winner’s bracket, outscoring opponents 60-11.
Because of its ability to score early runs, Ridley was never tested all tournament long, which should bode well as the team advances to the 8-10 year-old Eastern Regional tournament, which starts Friday in Cranston, R.I.. The tournament is comprised of state champions from 11 states: Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
“We’re going to go up to Rhode Island and give them our best. We haven’t seen any of these teams before, so we’re going to enjoy the moment, enjoy this,” Scanlan said. “We feel like we’re going to go up there and win some baseball games.”
Floirendo, who turned in arguably the best individual performance of the six-day-long tournament, hosted at Pitt-Bradford, by striking out 10 Lehigh players without walking a batter in his complete game victory. Floirendo was efficient, giving up just four runs while throwing 73 pitches.
At the plate, his RBI-double in the fourth inning put Ridley up, 7-2. For the tournament, he was 5-for-9 (.555 average) with two home runs, a double and drew walks.
“Michael has been our horse for all year,” Scanlan said. “He’s been our main cog on the mound. He’s just our horse. We had no problem handing him the ball today and saying, ‘Here’s your 75 pitches, go win us a Pa. state championship.’ And he did.”
Irv Fisher contributed to the victory with a 2-for-4 effort on the day with two doubles. Teammate Larry Rose had a double, while Sean Williams had two hits.
After getting down 6-0 early, Lehigh – which advanced out of the loser’s bracket by beating Bellefonte, 3-2, Saturday – tried to battle back when Tommy Mason muscled an inside pitch to right field for an opposite field two-run home run. However, Lehigh couldn’t generate any more offense on the day.
J.C. Spinosa and John Galgon combined to take the pitching loss for Lehigh, striking out six, walking two and allowing eight runs on nine hits.
