Indians Invade Cooperstown

The Indians arrived at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown on a beautiful Wednesday morning on June 27th, ready to play against the Adirondack Rattlers.

First up, Coach Carroll announced that Emil Pape had been selected as Captain of the Indians and would also start on the mound.

After striking out the first batter on 3 pitches, Pape walked the next batter. He was promptly thrown out attempting a steal by Catcher James DiMartino, with 2nd baseman James Carroll applying the quick tag. The next batter also walked, but was picked off first by DiMartino, with 1st baseman John Salvagione applying the tag. That effectively shut down the Rattlers running game.

Zach Egan started off the bottom of the first with a sharp single and quickly stole 2nd and 3rd base. With two outs, Emil Pape blasted a double into left centerfield for the RBI. John DiSanto followed with an RBI single and later stole home to pace the Indians to a 3-0 lead. Pape gave up one run in the 2nd and pitched a scoreless 3rd to complete his pitching line - 3 innings, 1 run and 6 strikeouts.
The bottom of the 3rd opened up with a walk to Carroll and a one out single by Pape. Carroll and Pape pulled off a double steal and eventually scored on RBIs by Mike Lapinski and Chris Morgan.

Lapinski came on in the 4th and pitched two scoreless innings. Meanwhile, the Indians offense continued to produce, scoring 3 in the 4th on a double by Egan, a fielder's choice RBI by DiMartino, a single by Pape and a 2 RBI double by DiSanto. 2 more runs crossed the plate in the 5th on singles by Lapinski, Teddy Derham and Egan.
Chris Morgan came on in the 6th and John Salvagione relieved DiMartino behind the plate. After hitting the first batter and walking the 2nd, Coach Russo went out to review mechanics. Chris promptly induced a 4-6-3 double play and struck out the next batter on 3 pitches, allowing only 1 run.

The 6th inning saw 3 more runs scored by the Indians has Pape continued his hot hitting with a 1 out single. With 2 outs, Lapinski singled and Morgan crushed a triple into the right centerfield gap. Derham followed with an RBI single.

John DiSanto pitched the 7th inning and with a big lead, was told to "pitch to the scoreboard". Despite giving up singles to the first two hitters, DiSanto settled down with defensive help from Egan at short, Carroll at 3rd and Lapinski at 1st.

The boys scored 4 more runs in the 7th on a lead off walk by Egan and a two out single by DiMartino. Pape finished off a 5-5 day with another RBI single (he also scored 5 runs on the day). DiSanto, Lapinski and Derham all singled to close out the scoring and give the Indians a 17-6 lead.
Egan came on to finish off the game. After a walk and a triple, he also settled down, getting the first out on an unassisted grounder to 1st and striking out the final two batters for a final score of 17-8.
We could not have been any prouder of the boys, as they showed hustle, teamwork, unity and sportsmanship. We expect it to carry on over into the regular season.

Our thanks to Indians President Kevin Gorman for securing the spot, arranging for the rooms and providing an outstanding venue for the boys to play. Additional thanks to "photographers" Tom Lapinski and Emil Pape Sr and all of the family and friends who came up to Cooperstown to cheer the boys on to victory.

Finally, a thanks to the Kyles - Kyle Carroll and Kyle Cashman, for working the scoreboard. Hopefully, they represent the future of the Indians.

Coach Carroll