LITTLE LEAGUE GAME OF THE WEEK: Bronx Bombers Yank Rug Out from under Angels

Brandon De La Cruz holds his game winner.

Down to his last strike Brandon De La Cruz poked an RBI single to right field to give the Yankees a dramatic 6-5 victory over the visiting Angels on Tuesday night in La Verne.

Entering the final inning, the Yankees were trailing 5-4 in a well-played game. Yankees clean-up hitter Tim Holden started the winning rally by lining a single up the middle that caromed off Angels pitcher Nick Peifer’s foot. It appeared Peifer would have to leave the game, but after receiving medical attention and walking off the stinger, he re-laced his shoe and gritted it out.

Peifer indeed came right back to get Luke Grapentin to ground out to second, with Holden advancing to second. Then Jonathan Attiyah hit a hot grounder that made it all the way to the fence to score Holden and tie the score at 5-5. Next, Kevin Sizemore walked. With runners on the corners, Tyler Talavera grounded to third. Running on the play, Attiyah was thrown out sliding at home, keeping the score at 5-5. It looked as if the game were headed for extra innings. That’s when De La Cruz stepped up and stroked the two-out, two-strike game winner.

Kenny Mort swings mightily.

The game featured plenty of action. In the first inning, Peiffer, who was 3-for-3 on the night, started the game with a lead-off single and eventually came around to score on a passed ball. Angels starting pitcher Jack Salsman also hit a two-out home run to give him and his team an early 2-0 lead.

Yankees starting pitcher Jacob Wollard got one of those runs back in the bottom half of the first when he hit a solo shot.

Peifer homered in the third to put the Angels up 3-1, and the team expanded that lead to 4-1, the big blow coming on a triple by Connor Nobbs.

Nick Peifer puts the Angels up 3-1 with his solo home run in the top of the third.

The Yankees, however, knotted the score at 4-4 with a three-run rally in the bottom of the fourth, using singles by Wollard and Holden, walks to Christian McGhee and Attiyah and a big 2-run RBI double by Tyler Talavera to get even.

Jacob Wollard circles the bases after hitting a solo home run in the first inning.

In the fifth, the Angels regained the lead, 5-4, using a double by Peifer and an RBI single by Nick Rodriguez. That score would hold until the dramatic sixth inning when De La Pena delivered his clutch hit to bring the Yankees pouring onto the field to congratulate their new hero.