Little League brings title to Valley Stream

In a dramatic finish, the Valley Stream Little League’s senior division team held on for a win and captured the District 29 championship last week. The team beat Floral Park 13-12 on July 14 and now moves on to the Section 5 tournament.

Floral Park, which beat Valley Stream in the same game last year, took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. But Valley Stream responded in the bottom of the inning, batting around and scoring five runs. Valley Stream plated two more in the second inning on right fielder John Faust’s home run, and four more in the third, powered by center fielder Steven Puccio’s bases-loaded triple to take a commanding 11-3 lead.

But Floral Park fought back to within a run with a six-run fifth inning. Valley Stream added two more insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to lead 13-10.

Again, Floral Park climbed to within a run in the top of the seventh, but pitcher Brandon Wilder got a strikeout and a ground-out to end the threat and send Valley Stream home with the championship.

Valley Stream went undefeated in all four games of the double-elimination tournament. Had it lost to Floral Park, the team would have had another shot at the championship two days later. But Valley Stream got its needed victory on the first try. “The kids didn’t give up,” Coach John Faust said. “They really wanted to win.”

Faust said that two important moments in the championship game were the home run by his son and Puccio’s three-run triple. He also cited an important strikeout that Wilder got with runners on base for Floral Park in the sixth inning. “That was key,” Faust said, “because if he gives up a hit to their best hitter, they take the lead.”

Wilder, who finished the game for starting pitcher Ricky Grosso, said it was by far the hardest of the four games that Valley Stream played. With the game on the line, there was a lot of pressure to get the job done in the final inning, he said.