Staten Island eliminated from Little League World Series after loss to Florida

New York City’s Little League World Series dreams will have to wait at least another year.

Staten Island South Shore Little League had their run in Williamsport, Pa., come to an end in a 6-1 loss to Florida on Tuesday, despite a valiant effort where the New York squad tied the game at one in the fourth and starter Stephen Grippo threw an 86-pitch performance.

Going into this year’s tournament, a New York City-based team hadn’t taken home the title since 1964, when a team, also from Staten Island, won the whole thing.

Heads-up base running by Florida’s Teraj Alexander helped the Lake Mary team score the go-ahead run in the top of the fifth.

Florida had runners on second and first when Christopher Chikodroff hit a ball toward the gap between first and second, forcing Alexander to dodge the hard-hit ball and creating havoc for the Staten Island infielders.

The play allowed Liam Morrisey to score from second base and for Alexander to reach third.

The Florida Little Leaguers added four runs in the top of the sixth on a sac fly by James Feliciano and a three-run home run by DeMarcos Mieses.

Tuesday’s loss played out in a similar fashion to previous Staten Island games in the tournament, where the New Yorkers needed to go through the order once before their bats came alive.

In the previous two games, Staten Island was batting .652 the second time through the order.

The New Yorkers had gotten a strong start out of Grippo as he pitched 4 ⅔ innings striking out seven batters while giving up two runs on two hits.

He had started the game by striking out four of the first six batters that he faced on Tuesday night in Williamsport.

Things became rocky for the Staten Island starter in the top of the third when he walked one batter, yielded a hit and also hit a batter after getting Morrissey out to start the frame.

Grippo was able to get Lathan Norton to line out, but he walked Hunter Alexander on five pitches to allow the game’s first run before escaping the frame with just one run .

Staten Island had a chance to answer back in the bottom half of the third, but after Dean Scarangello was hit by a pitch and Dylan DeGaeta, one of Staten Island’s best hitters during the tournament, singled to put runners on the corners, Florida starter Garrett Rohozen was able to get the next two batters out to end the inning.

Staten Island tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Jason Rocchio was hit by a scary pitch in the helmet.

Vincent Ruggiero doubled to put Rocchio on third, and a sac fly by Grippo led to the team’s only run of the game.

Scarangello came in to pitch in the middle of the top of the fifth after Grippo reached 86 pitches.

Alex Torres and Zach Weiss also came into the game in relief.