SPARKS, Nevada >> It was a roller coaster ride that ended with Andy Pitt’s walk-off three-run home run.
Pitt’s mighty swing of the bat with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning lifted the Middletown Titans, a traveling 14-and-under baseball team made up primarily of Middletown-area players, to a 19-9 victory over Perk’s Sports Academy of Antioch in the championship game of the All-World Sports World Series on Sunday in Sparks, Nevada, capping a wild four-day run for manager Dave Sisson’s squad.
“It was crazy the way these kids were hitting the baseball,” Sisson said. “It was unbelievable.”
In going 6-1 at the tournament, which began on July 14 and ran through last Sunday, the Titans lost their debut despite hitting six home runs — all solo shots — but came back to win their final six games. They smacked 22 home runs in the seven games, by far the most of any of the 12 teams in their bracket.
“It was unbelievable,” Sisson said. “This is special. I sat there as a coach and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
Although the Titans’ World Series odyssey opened with a loss, the team returned the next day (July 15) to post its first in a string of impressive victories. That set the stage for a crazy Saturday. After winning twice early in the day, the Titans had to come back later that night for the start of the single-elimination championship round. They won again, beating the Phenom out of Nevada, to advance to Sunday’s championship round.
Pitted against the tournament’s No. 1 seed, the Cali Chaos out of Antioch, the Titans pulled off the upset to reach the championship game later that day against Perk’s Sports Academy, which Sisson described as a “super team” as it incorporated two teams into one select All-Star-type squad.
“These are the top echelon of players in the Bay Area, not just some random Little League players,” Sisson said of Middletown’s opposition
Things didn’t start out well as the Titans fell behind 4-0, but they reeled off 10 answered runs to go up 10-4. Perk’s battled back to make it a 10-9 game.
“It was a battle royale,” Sisson said.
The Titans, the home team, pushed their lead to 12-9 in the bottom of the sixth and had the bases loaded with one out when the umpires called the game because of the tournament time rule.
“They told us we had won the game,” Sisson said.
Perk’s argued the tournament time limit of 2 hours, 15 minutes had not been reached and the tournament director sided with them, so play continued.
When play resumed, Jimmy Larson clobbered the first pitch he saw to straightaway center field for a grand slam, giving the Titans a 16-9 cushion. And Middletown wasn’t done yet. Four batters later Pitt connected to make it 19-9, ending the game because of the tournament’s eight-run rule.
The Titans fielded a roster of 13 players during the regular season and 12 for the World Series. Besides Pitt and Larson, team members were Will Aden, Tyler Crudo, Keegan Cutting, Drake Harbison, Jimmy Rockwell, Jack Sisson, Aidan Skinner, Angel Yee, Telly Hill, Jonny Hoogendoorn and Travis Brayton. The coaching staff featured Sisson, Troy Harbison, Paul Crudo and Billy Aden.
Winning the World Series in the under-14 division carried a boatload of prizes for the Titans, including T-shirts, a banner, a small trophy, individuals medals and, best of all, World Series rings.
“It was a pretty good haul,” Sisson said. “The kids love the rings.”
The Titans competed in a series of regular-season tournaments leading up to the World Series. Prior to their trip to Nevada, the team went 4-0 to win a tournament in Martinez on July 9-10.
“That really set us up to go to the World Series,” Sisson said.
