Mike LaVita hadn’t pitched for a good three weeks heading into the Walpole American 12-year-old All-Star baseball team’s game with Portland North (Maine) yesterday.
And when he finally stepped to the mound in the third inning, the second pitch he threw to Portland North’s Mitchell Powers was hit out of A. Bartlett Giamatti’s Little League complex’s Breen Field to cut his team’s lead to a run.
But LaVita, who usually holds down the first baseman duties, settled himself down nicely the rest of the way and recorded six of his team’s 11 strikeouts on the day en route to an 8-2 win that clinched his team a spot in tomorrow’s semifinals.
“We had 11 Ks and I think (six) came from Mike LaVita, who hasn’t pitched since the districts. It’s been three full weeks since he’s seen the mound,” said Walpole American manager Brian Oberacker. “We couldn’t ask for anything more out of him. The whole team’s proud of him and hopefully we can get him back on the mound again this summer.”
After the early home run, LaVita came back to induce a pop out to right then struck out the next two batters swinging. Despite the rough beginning, LaVita didn’t lose confidence in himself or his teammates.
“I had good fielders behind me so I just put the ball in the strike zone and our fielders got the outs,” said LaVita.
Using a good mix of his fastball and off-speed pitches, LaVita kept the Portland North batters off balance. Even though he gave up another home run in the fourth inning, he only allowed one runner to advance to second base the rest of the way.
“I just threw fastballs and I threw my tumbler,” said LaVita. “I tried to get guys off balance to pop it up or hit a ground ball.”
Even though he only had a two-run lead after the fourth, he didn’t pitch like he had any jitters.
“I felt a little pressure but I knew we had good bats to back me up,” he said.
Indeed, Walpole American added four more runs in the fifth to make it a less stressful top of the sixth, as LaVita closed it out with a strikeout, a groundout to shortstop Johnny Adams and a pop out to centerfielder Mike Rando.
With LaVita’s help, Walpole American is now assured of a spot in the semifinals and two wins away from a spot in Williamsport.
“We’ve been dreaming about this since we were little kids to go this far,” said LaVita.
