Baseball | 7/17/2019 11:12:00 AM

FLUSHING, N.Y. (July 17, 2019) – With the calendar rolling from July into August, collegiate athletes are gearing up to return to school for another season; meanwhile, the calendar rolling from July into August also means something else: the Little League Baseball World Series is almost here once again.

For Queens College first baseman/designated hitter Anthony Scotti, this summer marks a special one: in the dog days of the summer of 2009, Scotti and his teammates from the South Shore Little League of Staten Island went on a magical journey to Williamsport.

"We had a reunion," Scotti mentioned by phone recently, "where we had all the guys catch up. It was at a pizzeria on Staten Island [owned by the father of teammate Michael Rapaglia]. We just caught up and remembered the run, talked about where everyone was now and just had a great time together.

"I wish everyone could have been there," teammate Vincent Quinn mentioned. "We all moved to travel baseball afterwards but the whole team still remained together."

"It brings back all these memories," noted teammate Angelo Navetta, "and I was so grateful to be able to have all of those and share all of them with the guys. Our coaches were there and it was fun hearing these stories from his side now that we're a little older."

The team had been unstoppable to that point, a group of baseball players who had racked up wins via mercy rule left and right.

"We were all kids," Navetta mentioned, "who were in the second half of the alphabet. So we formed one All-Star team and the kids in the first half formed the other team. I'd never been part of such a winning team before that."

Navetta was one of the team's power pitchers along with Quinn, despite the fact that Quinn had never truly pitched before.

"I started as a catcher," Quinn remembered, "and then moved onto third base. But at that time I was the tallest kid on the team (at nearly five-foot-nine) and I threw harder than my teammates so our coaches said that I was a pitcher."

The best team in New York State became the best team in the Mid-Atlantic region and nearly went on to become the best in the world. However, it almost did not happen as Scotti and Staten Island nearly lost it all in the state semi-finals against Saratoga Springs.

 "The state tournament," Scotti said, "was the hardest to get through. We went into the last inning against Saratoga Springs down by a run."

The story goes that with Staten Island down to its last out and last strike, manager Michael Zaccariello called for a squeeze bunt play with the tying run at third base. It was a call that epitomized the spirit of the Staten Island little leaguers; it was also a call that shook Navetta and Scotti.

"I just remembered looking around at all the guys," Navetta recalled, "and we were all mouthing 'Oh my god…"

"Who calls a squeeze bunt with two outs and two strikes?" Scotti laughed.
 

Needless to say, the play call worked and the South Shore squad won the New York State Championship. Then came the Mid-Atlantic region where the New York champs faced off with the best teams from Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. None of those foes were much trouble for the New York champions, as the team breezed through pool play with a 4-0 record. After ripping Delaware in the regional semi-finals, the team got to play New Jersey one more time. It was here that a single play in the very first batter of the game would bring the New York team into national prominence.

With Quinn on the mound, New Jersey's lead-off batter hit a 1-1 pitch past the pitcher and up the middle of the infield. Scotti, who was playing shortstop at the time, dove to his left and snared a high hop before making a picture-perfect throw from his knees to retire the batter. It would later be featured as the top play of the night on ESPN SportsCenter.

Scotti's Top-Ten SportsCenter Moment

"That got the juices flowing," Quinn remembered. "Scotti made two phenomenal plays at shortstop that game."

Navetta crushed a home run on the second pitch of his at-bat in the bottom of the first inning. Quinn struck out seven batters in four-and-two-thirds innings. New York would win 4-0 and the Staten Island players were on their way to Williamsport.
  After the celebrations, Scotti recalled that the team had a day to recover before a long bus ride to Williamsport. When the team got to Central Pennsylvania, they were all amazed by what they saw.

"No one knew what it looked like," Scotti recalled. "All of a sudden we were driving down a street in the middle of nowhere and then there was the stadium."

"We were in shock," Navetta said. "Being surrounded by all these kids from around the country and around the world."

"We went through a hard region to get to Williamsport and we played more games than almost any other team to get there," stated Quinn. "We knew what we were capable of doing."
 
2009 Staten Island LLWS Intro Video

Staten Island had the first game of LLWS pool play against Northwest Region champions Mercer Island of Washington. Navetta started the contest on national television. The three players remembered three things about that game, a 10-2 demolition by the South Shore squad: the pop of Navetta's pitches hitting the catcher's glove for nine strikeouts, the pop of Nick Pucciarelli's home run and triple to drive in four runs, and the pop of Scotti's hamstring as he rounded first base on one of his two hits in that game.

"That was the first time I tore my hamstring," Scotti recalled. "I couldn't walk. But it was the Little League World Series, so I kept playing."

Staten Island lost the next game to the Southeast Region champions from Georgia---a squad that Navetta mentioned was their biggest competition. An 8-3 win over Iowa put the New Yorkers into the U.S. semi-final match-up against the team from San Antonio, Texas. The run would end for the team from Staten Island following a 4-1 defeat to the Southwest Region champions; but for all three teammates, it is that game that stings the most.

"Our timely hitting wasn't there," Quinn recalled. "There were games where we relied on home runs so much. In Little League, there aren't really any double plays. Somehow, we hit into three of them in that game."

"How does a team hit into three double plays in Little League baseball?" Navetta asked as if the game had just happened.

"I hit into two of them," Scotti chuckled. "I mean I couldn't run."

Staten Island was in the game thanks to Quinn's relief pitching. The "burly right arm"---as a New Jersey reporter had mentioned back in the Mid-Atlantic Region championship game---struck out four batters in three-and-a-third innings of relief while allowing just one hit. 

"Vinny shut them down," Navetta mentioned. "We just couldn't capitalize."
  Admittedly, a group of thirteen and fourteen year-olds might not live in the moment as much. After winning the Mid-Atlantic Region, Scotti stated that it hadn't even hit most of the guys on the team. Ten years later, however, those feelings have definitely changed.

"We were playing games just to play them," Scotti reminisced. "Now it's fun and more of a big deal. It was a truly fun experience."

Navetta said that he would go back 100 times over, even though he admits that he doesn't "wake up thinking about it all that much. When you play Little League baseball, getting to the Little League World Series seems so far out of reach. Then as we played and kept winning and finally got there, those games became memories that still give me chills to this day."

While Navetta and Scotti went on to play college baseball (Navetta was a Gold Glove-winning first baseman at Molloy), Quinn went a different route after suffering an injury in his senior year of high school. Nevertheless, Quinn fondly recalls all those games and notes how amazing it was to be a part of a historic run.

"It was and still is a surreal feeling," Quinn remarked. "You know, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us and it was the best time of my life. I'll hold onto it forever."