The Yankees rallied with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to beat the Marlins 4-3 and claim the Morgan Hill Mustang Division city championship.
The Marlins jumped out to an early first inning lead. Kyle Quadros beat out an infield single and eventually scored on a passed ball.
The Yankees wasted little time in responding. Stephen Gause led of the bottom of the first with a single. Mitch Hickey followed with his first of three hits in the game to move Gause to third.
After Wes Guild walked to load the bases, Marlins pitcher Kai Paresa looked to be in serious trouble with nobody out. But he escaped the jam with two strike outs and pop up to second and the only run that scored was on a wild throw and the game was tied 1-1 after the first.
The Marlins struck again in the top of the third. Several walks were sandwiched around another hit by Quadros and Marlins scored twice to take a 3-1 lead.
Like the Yankees in the first inning, the Marlins were poised to break the game open but the Yankees defense stepped up to prevent that. Yankees’ catcher Domenic Zanotto threw out Quadros on a steal attempt of third for the second out.
With runners on first and second, Yankees’ relief pitcher Brandon Lozado threw a wild pitch. Both runners advanced easily and when the ball started rolling toward the first base dugout, Jesse Osuna rounded third and headed for home.
The Yankees’ catcher Zanotto pounced on the ball and Osuna stopped halfway between home and third. Zanotto ran Osuna back to the base before firing to the third baseman Alex Aguarisiti.
A wild rundown play, in which the scoring went 2-5-1-2-3-1-2-3, ensued before Osuna was eventually retired to end the inning.
“The way those kids ran that pickle drill was incredible,” Marlins coach Kirk Quadros said. “They were like a machine.”
The Yankees used their momentum to pick up a run in the bottom of the third. Jacob Fernandez walked and scored on Hickey’s second hit of the game to make it 3-2 Marlins after three innings.
Hickey entered the game on the mound for the Yankees in the top of the fourth and he walked the Marlins’ Brandon Sorce and hit the next two batters to load the bases. But Hickey escaped the jam, allowing only one run on a passed ball, by striking out the next three batters to end the inning.
The Yankees again immediately responded to the allowed run. Christian Ukanwa was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the fourth. He immediately stole second and third and scored when the throw to third got passed the third baseman.
Hickey then became dominant on the mound for the Yankees. He struck out the side in both the fifth and sixth innings to finish with nine strike outs over three innings of work.
The Yankees had the top of the order leading off in the bottom of the sixth. Gause fell behind 0-2 before battling back and fouling off three pitches to work a 10-pitch walk.
On the first pitch to the next batter, Gause stole second but was then ruled to be off the base and was called out.
Hickey then restarted the rally for the Yankees when he lined his third hit of the game to centerfield. With Guild at the plate, Hickey stole second and went all the way to third when the pitch got past the catcher.
Hickey then tied the game at 4-4 when the next pitch was wild and he raced home.
Guild then drew a walk and went to second on a wild pick-off attempt. While Guild was taking his lead from second, the Marlins’ pitcher Quadros turned and caught Guild off second base.
Guild raced toward third and a throw to the third baseman forced Guild back to second. The throw back to second sailed into left field and Guild sprinted to third and headed home.
The throw was picked up by the right fielder and Guild headed home and easily scored the winning run to give the Yankees the city championship.
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