Sweet memory

SAUGUS – Rob Rochenski remembers that his Saugus American Little League team was up by six runs in the sixth inning over Richmond, Texas, when a crew consisting of the host league in Williamsport, Penn., came in to clean the dugout.Even though they were winning, Rochenski was horrified.?I told them not yet,” Rochenski recalls, 10 years after perhaps the wildest game in Little League World Series history. “I told them, ?Don?t you know where we?re from? We?re from Boston. It?s never over ?til it?s over?.”Rochenski, the manager of that team, knew full well after years of being frustrated by the Red Sox, that the “fat lady” never sang in these parts until all the horses were in. And they weren?t in.And they stayed out on the track long enough for Richmond to come all the way back to tie the game at 10-10.To make matters worse, Texas went up 13-10 in the top of the seventh and it looked pretty bleak for the Americans, a team of kids who could have starred in their own version of “The Sandlot” (which, coincidentally, has marked its 20th anniversary. “We were all friends, and that?s what made it so great,” says Dario Pizzano, one of the 12 members of the team.?We?d been playing together since we were eight years old. To us, the best part was we were playing baseball, a game we all loved. And we were all friends.”What happened in the bottom of the seventh of the U.S. semifinals on August 21, 2003, at Lamade Stadium in Williamsport is one for the ages.Groomed for successThe 12 Saugus Americans – Pizzano, Mike Scuzzarella, Yano Petruzzelli, Craig Cole, Joe Kasabuski, Tyler Calla, Tyler Grillo, Matt Muldoon, Dave Ferreira, Ryan Bateman, Mark Sacco and Anthony DiSciscio – were earmarked for success almost from the time they showed up at Grabowski Field on Hurd Street.?We?d been playing in tournaments and beating kids much older than us when we were still young,” said Pizzano. “When we were eight years old we were playing in the Bay State Games and beating 12-year-olds.”A lot of that early success – and later success too – had to do with Charlie Bilton, a veteran of the District 16 Little League wars who?d had success with crosstown rival Saugus National before moving to Grabowski Field.There?s unanimity among the 12 players that Bilton was a stern taskmaster who drilled those players relentless in pursuit of perfection.But they also agree that?s what they wanted.?We just blasted through everybody,” says Bilton about the District 16 tournament, the first step on the road to the Little League World Series. “We didn?t have a close game until we lost, 10-5, to Weston, (in the state sectionals) and we played horribly. I really lit into them after that game, and because of that, I was told I couldn?t be near the kids after that.”But, says Bilton, whatever he said worked. Saugus came back, beat Peabody West to stay alive, and went onto beat Weston twice, including 16-1 in the deciding game, and then demolished the field in the state tournament.Then, the Americans went through the New England regionals in Bristol, Conn., without losing a game, punching their ticket to Williamsport.By this time, they were full-fledged celebrities not only in Saugus, but all over the Boston area. And their popularity grew as they rolled through pool play in Williamsport. The scores might not have been as one-sided, but they came out on the right end.?It?s funny,” says Bilton. “When we had our meeting with the parents, I told them I thought we?d have a pretty good little team. We could win the districts and maybe even make some noise in the states. But then I said don?t worry, we?ll never make it to Williamsport.”Rochenski was the manager on the bench, but Bilton was the power behind the throne. He ran the practices and came up with the drills, including, says Pizzano, “pitching as fast as he could to us from halfway between the mound and the plate, so we were used to hitting fast pitches.”But Scuzzarella, Saugus? mound ace, threw more breaking pitches than fastball