Garwood Gunners 2022 Season
Submitted by Eric Duskin
On a hot, humid Tuesday night in Garwood, the 8U Gunners took the field for the championship game for the New Providence Green League 8U Grey Division. Staring at them from the opposing dugout were the Bridgewater Panthers. It seemed as though the game had been set earlier in the season as the two teams had been in first and second place for the entire stretch, Garwood as the 1 seed going for a perfect season and Bridgewater as the 2 seed with one of their 2 loses at the hands of Garwood in the regular season.
Garwood’s season was not without dramatics, however. In the game prior to the championship, Garwood was taken to the brink by the Springfield Minutemen. Down 10-1 going into the bottom of the fifth and final inning, Garwood somehow found the magic to battle all the way back for a dramatic walk-off win 11-10 to make it into the finals. However, Garwood had a different result in mind when they took the field for the championship against Bridgewater.
James Guerrriero started the game on the mound for Garwood and pitched nearly 2 perfect innings to give the team a head start. He was relieved by Gabriel Neyra and TJ Scanio who kept the momentum and the pressure on Bridgewater, combining to only allow 2 hits against 1 run with 9 strikeouts in total.
At the plate, Garwood was led by Cole Duskin (4RBI), Oliver Wiecek (2RBI), Jacob Cruz (1H), and Donovan Ehrhardt (1RBI) who all compiled hits and RBIs to pour on the run support. Runs don’t score without runners on base though so a disciplined plate approach from Charles LeFever (2BB), Blaise Kelly (1BB), James Farrell (2SAC), and Mason Howard (2BB) all came through with either timely walks or balls in play to extend innings and keep the runners moving.
In the end, the result was exactly what Garwood had dreamed of. They came out on top 9-1 and completed the perfect season winning 14, including the postseason, without a single loss. The Garwood Baseball/ Softball League and coaches are all extremely proud of the season-long effort of the team and also send out a big thank you to the parents for all they did to get the kids to the games and their overall support. This will be a year to remember!
Courtesy photo
