Titans capture Autumn Baseball League playoff crown

Nov 9, 2010

Over the past two weekends, the SouthCoast Titans went 4-0 in the Autumn Baseball League playoffs to win the 16U League Championship and finish with an overrall record of 17-1.

The Titans is a squad comprised of top players from Wareham High School, Dartmouth High School, Fairhaven High School, New Beford High School, Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech, and Bishop Stang.  Locals Ian Searles and Sean Conway participated on the squad this year.

The team defeated the Plymouth Rox in the semi-finals by scores of 11-0 and 15-1 to win the best-of-three series and advance to face the Mass Mayhem in the ABL 16U World Series.

In Game 1, the Titans sent ace Adam Mullen (6-0, .70 ERA) to the mound, looking to win the opener and gain momentum in the series.

The lanky, 6' 4" right-handed fireballer didn't disappoint, firing seven shutout innings while allowing three hits and striking out 11 along the way to a 5-0 victory.

After scoring single runs in the second and fourth innings, the Titans tacked on three more insurance runs in the fifth to give Mullen all he would need. Adam Fournier's 2-RBI double was the big blow offensively, while Mullen(who also had an RBI), Sean Conway, Justin Harding, and Jake Souza all had hits.

Game 2 was a different story.

The Mayhem roughed up Titans' starter Kyle Hamel over the first two innings and staked themselves to an early 7-0 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd, the Titans offense came to life. Conway's monstrous 3-RBI double down the line in left, along with a passed ball, made it 7-4. In the bottom of the 4th the Titans would draw even on back-to-back RBI singles off the bats of Ian Searles and Souza.

But with the score tied at 7 in the bottom of the fifth, the Titans offense put the game away, scoring nine runs to take a nearly insurmountable 16-7 lead.

Javi Lozada, Conway, Harding, Jake Friar, and Souza all had big hits in the inning. With the outcome pretty much apparent, Ethan Kelley would deliver the final blow - stepping up to the plate in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and promptly delivering a long RBI single to envoke the mercy rule, setting off a wild victory celebration at 2nd base.

The Titans are managed by Josh Pimental, and he was assisted by Bill Casteel and Kieran Andre.