Wyoma still reigns as City Series champs

LYNN – Last year, the Wyoma Yankees went undefeated en route to winning a City Series championship. Well, on Saturday at Reinfuss Field, Wyoma again had a chance to put its name on the trophy.And while the Yankees didn’t go perfect, losing once in the regular season, they did find a way to put their name on the trophy again thanks to a 7-1 win over the East Lynn Cubs, the Yanks’ second ‘W’ in as many days.”We’ve got a bunch of good players,” Wyoma manager Dan O’Neill said. “And they all came through.”Perhaps no player came up bigger than Yankees pitcher Brendan O’Neill, who worked five innings of four-hit ball, allowing one run and striking out five before leaving because of pitch count regulations.”You’ve got to give Wyoma credit,” East Lynn manager Ryan Boisselle said. “Their best pitcher (Lucas Harris) was strong on Friday and (O’Neill) was really good (Saturday).”Much like its win on Friday, Wyoma got timely hits and also took advantage of some shaky Cubs defense that put pitcher Joshue Perez on the hook for the loss despite a solid outing.The Yankees got the scoring started in the bottom of the first. Harris singled to lead off but was retired at second on Chris Donovan’s grounder to short. An error on the play let Donovan reach, but he was thrown out trying to reach second.Kevin Dusablon followed with a base hit and went to second on an outfield error. Perez then looked like he was going to escape trouble when Nick Needham hit a fly ball to center. But it was misplayed, allowing Dusablon to score the game’s first run.East Lynn immediately threatened to tie the game in the second as Vinny Capano and Perez were in scoring position with one out. But O’Neill struck out Derian Angamos and Jovanni Rivera to end the inning.The Yankees immediately took advantage. Joey Ragusa reached on a 3-base error and scored on a passed ball to make it 2-0. Emmitt O’Shea walked with one out and scored on Harris’ base hit to up the gap to 3-0.Donovan followed with a triple to the fence in right, bringing Harris around from second to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead through two.”Those errors in the outfield really were the difference in the game,” Boisselle said.It stayed a 4-0 game into the fourth, when East Lynn tried to make a game out of this one.Perez led off the inning with a double and went to third on a passed ball. Ordis Garcia reached on an error at third, scoring Perez to trim the lead to 4-1. But O’Neill struck out two of the next three batters around a Rivera groundout to strand Garcia at second.That would be as close as the Cubs could get. O’Neill worked a quiet fifth before his teammates broke the game open in the bottom of the inning.Dusablon and Needham singled to put runners at the corners. Dusablon came home on O’Neill’s grounder to third before Ragusa knocked Perez from the game with an RBI double that scored Needham to make it 6-1. Brandon Kahari took over and was greeted by a Louie Lenzie double that scored Ragusa with Wyoma’s final run.Dusablon took over for O’Neill on the mound in the sixth and promptly loaded the bases with one out, causing Wyoma fans to hold their breath momentarily. But he got Bobby Haddow looking to retire the side and seal the title.