YOUTH BASEBALL (12U): NICHOLS-TIOGA CAPTURES U-E TOURNEY TITLE (2021-07-25)

Valley Sports Report
ENDICOTT - The highly-anticipated 12C division championship game of the U-E Little League 12U All-Star Tournament did not disappoint as Nichols-Tioga made a four-run cushion stand up for a 4-1 victory over Greene here Sunday.

In their pool play clash nine days ago, NTLL emerged with a 1-0 win in a pitchers duel which saw the blue and gold's Jackson Bombard and Greene's Jackson Roth combine to strike out 21 batters.

Due to pitch counts, Roth was unable to go six innings in this contest. While he was solid in relief, he had to take the mound with a 2-0 deficit in hand. Roth fanned eight batters over 3 1/3 innings, giving up three hits and two runs, only one of which was earned.

In most cases, that performance would be good enough to put a "W" in the scorebook, but Roth was not able to upstage his counterpart. Bombard went the distance for NTLL scattering five hits and a pair of walks while registering 11 strikeouts.

He actually overcame a slightly shaky start, surrendering a walk and a double in the top of the first inning. NTLL managed to nail one base-runner at the plate and Bombard fanned the clean-up hitter to end the threat.

Nichols-Tioga took advantage of Greene's early pitching woes in the championship battle. Talon Relyea led off the NTLL half of the first inning with a single and Bombard followed with a base on balls.

Following an out, Gavin Kithcart and Kaiden Sindoni drew walks, the latter scoring the game's initial run. Bombard made it 2-0 on Brayden Lounsbury's fielder's choice. Christian Crawn would walk to reload the bases and that's when Greene turned to Roth, who struck out the next batter to end the inning.

Bombard gave up a one-out single in the second, then struck out the side, but Roth retaliated with three Ks.

Greene put a hit batter on base in the third, but couldn't get the ball out of the infield.

Bombard reached on a bunt to start off the bottom of the third and scored when Owen Parker's single took a nice hop past the third baseman and got past the left fielder. That left Parker standing on third and he scored on Sindoni's single to center, giving Nichols-Tioga a 4-0 advantage.

Greene erased the goose egg in the fourth with two doubles and a walk.

Roth was relieved in the fifth, and Bombard and Parker smacked one-out back-to-back singles, but were left stranded at third and second, respectively.

It wouldn't matter, however, as Bombard fanned three of the final four batters, allowing a one-out single.

Bombard helped his own cause at the dish, going 2-for-2 with two runs. Parker went 2-for-3 with a run and RBI, and Sindoni was 1-for-2 with two RBI. Relyea chipped in with a hit and a run, and Lounsbury drove in one run.

Nichols-Tioga finished the tourney with a 6-0 record and is 18-2 in tournament play, also winning the Maine-Endwell tournament in June.

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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.