By Anthony Bevilacqua
The 2015 Palisades WBL Finals featured the Mariners’ Scott Fliesser, a consecutive two-time Finals runner-up, and his retooled star-studded supporting cast of Mike Weiner, Sean Ryan, and Ryan McElrath. This team has the deepest bunch of arms in Palisades WBL history. The Dodgers are a cast of All-Stars themselves with fireballing pitching machine Jordan Robles, 10 game winner Johnny Costa, dangerous long-time vets Gerard Fitzgerald and Anthony Didio and the commish, Brett Bevelacqua. In a season that was jam-packed with great performances and perhaps the highest number of dramatic late inning wins we ever had, the Finals’ 15 inning affair was a fitting ending. Normally a best of 3 series, these finals were decided by one game under the clever rule instituted a year ago in which a game tied after 10 innings becomes a winner takes all sudden death series.
With all of the pitching on both sides it was no wonder that the game was scoreless going into the 9th until Ryan McElrath hit a huge RBI double off Johnny Costa (8 innings, 1 run, 20 Ks) to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead and a sniff of that Champagne that eluded them the last two years. In the bottom of the ninth, the Mariners elected to pitch to the Dodger’s (and perhaps the league’s) most dangerous and clutch hitter, Gerard Fitzgerald and it cost them. Fitzgerald hit a game tying bomb to crush Mariner fans everywhere and left Scott Fleisser wondering, what does he have to do to win? After pitching 8 shutout innings of 21 strikeout ball, Fleisser did not back down against Fitzgerald.
The home run knocked Fleisser out of the game as he had given his team all he could. Mike Weiner came in but late in the season he lost some confidence as he struggled with control issues down the stretch. A confident Weiner possibly could have shut down the Dodgers but after two straight walks, the Mariners went to Palisades WBL career ERA leader, Ryan McElrath, who spent the entire season rehabbing his injured elbow under doctor’s orders. The Mariners plan of drafting pitching, pitching and more pitching proved to be genious as not only did McElrath get the big hit, he also became part of the playoff pitching staff. In typical McErath fashion, he got of out the jam with a huge double play off the bat of Jordan Robles and a strikeout of Brett Bevelacqua.
For the next 5 innings, the Dodgers Robles and Mariners McElrath matched zeros and then came the bottom of the 15th. Jordan Robles (4 for 12) hit a one out double. Brett Bevelacqua K’d for the second out. Once again Fitzgerald, 5 for 11 up until that point, stepped up to the plate. Rather than put a second runner on, McElrath decided to pitch to Gerard and he made them pay with his second home run of the day to give the Dodgers their first cup. Fitzgerald was named playoff MVP with a .414 average and three home runs and maybe, just maybe, he will be issued a few more walks next time around.
Categories: 2015 Teams, Archive, News
The Wiff Hot Stove 
Brett can finally retire now and start that cooking league he always wanted to get into too.
Congrats to the ’15 Dodgers and to Brett! This was a great, great squad led by a sharp-minded manager. Kudos to all the “Boys in Blue”, and especially to their most dangerous and clutch hitter, Gerard Fitzgerald.
A great season and a great final.