ReMax Realty, champion of the local George B. Kelley Federation, dropped a 14-6 decision to Astro 18’s of Ontario, Canada on Saturday night to exit the NABF Regional Tournament one game short of playing for the championship.
ReMax (2-1) ran into a tough opponent that has a four-million drawing area and usually plays an 80-game schedule together. The Astro 18’s dropped a 10-0 six-inning decision to the Maryland Cardinals (5-0), who breezed through the tournament undefeated, in the championship game on Sunday afternoon.
Playing Astro 18’s, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, ReMax jumped out of the gate quickly to score three times in the top of the first at the Mansion Park diamond.
Adam Kaack was safe on an error and Tyrone Legion pickup player Barry Gummo singled. Both scored three batters later on a single by Jim Clancy, who continued all the way around the bases to score on a pair of errors on the play.
Astro 18’s blunted the advantage with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first and after ReMax scored once to up their lead to 4-2, scored three more times in the bottom of the second to edge into a 5-4 lead.
ReMax regained the lead with two runs in the top of the fourth inning, but the team from Canada batted around to rebound into a lead they would hold for the remainder of the contest.
A. J. Palazzi reached on an error and Mike Montgomery banged his second double of the game to score Palazzi, then scored on the play when Astro 18’s committed their second miscue of the inning. Brent Palonga came on in relief to get the final two outs of the inning, then shut ReMax down, giving up no runs on just one hit over the final three innings.
Clancy and Montgomery led ReMax with two hits each with Montgomery crashing two doubles, scoring twice and driving in one, while Clancy had two singles and two RBI.
Astro 18’s cleanup hitter Scott Wells led the victors going 4-5 at the plate with three singles and an inside-the-park home run for a total of five RBI. Justin Gianfrancisco went 2-3 with a pair of walks and four runs scored.
“It meant a lot to me to play in the NABF tournament,” said Barry Gummo. “Playing as teenagers is a lot of fun. There is a lot of heart in these games and a lot of fun, more than playing in the big leagues and stuff like that.
“This was a great experience, getting to play in a national tournament like this. We fought hard, but beat ourselves. We had a lot of pressure, but didn’t cave in to it. I had a good year and they (ReMax) had a great year and then I joined up with them for the tournament.”
In the first game of the day, played at Mansion Park at 2 p.m., ReMax met a familiar foe in fellow Kelley Federation foe Barkman Oil/Altoona First. With one of the two to be eliminated, ReMax took the early lead on a two-run single by Gummo in the top of the third, then regained the lead got good an inning later, when they struck for four runs, including another RBI single by Gummo, who went 2-4 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
Jim Clancy and A. J. Palazzi also contributed two hits for ReMax and Adam Kaack scored three times.
ReMax put the game out of reach in the sixth. First, on offense, they used two errors and base hits by Kaack, Clancy and Palazzi and a sac fly by Jonathan Milliron to score four times to take a 10-3 lead. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Clancy gave up four straight hits, including a two-run home run by Shane Stiffler, but had enough to get a grounder to third for the final out of the inning, after ReMax catcher Montgomery threw out Paul Frederick attempting to steal third base.
