Bolla, Rowley dethrone Mariners with walk-off homer to win ITL title

Bolla, Rowley dethrone Mariners with walk-off homer to win ITL title

By Nick Curcuru
Aug 22, 2020

ROWLEY — In 2019, the Manchester Mariners won the Intertown Twilight League championship with a walk-off home run against the Rowley Rams. In Saturday's Game 3 of the ITL finals, the Rams returned the favor.

With two down in the bottom of the seventh inning, the best hitter of the series, Rowley's Justin Bolla, stepped to the plate with a runner on first base. Bolla saw a couple of pitches before getting a fastball that he could handle, and he launched it out to left field for a walk-off two-run homer and a 2-0 Rowley win to clinch the league championship and sweep the best-of-five series.

"There was a runner on first so I expected them to go at me," said Bolla, who had been pitched around all game, walking twice. "It was a new pitcher so I was expecting him to come in and throw hard. When I hit it I knew it was enough for at least a double and once I saw it in the air I knew it was going out."

Bolla was the player of the series as he was dialed in at the plate, going 7-for-10 with three home runs and 10 RBI in the series. He drove in four runs in the first two games and then finished off the series by driving in the only two runs in the championship clincher.

The championship was Rowley's first since 2011. The Rams have been knocking on the door for years and were able to finish this year in dominant fashion, outscoring the defending champs, 18-2 in three games.

"I've got no words for it," Bolla said. "We've been fighting every year, competing so close every single year. Finally we just kicked the door down this year and got it done."

Saturday's championship clincher was a pitcher's duel with Rowley's Joe Martin and Manchester Essex's Zach Abbot, who is about to start his senior year in high school, both making big pitches in big spots to quiet two powerful offenses.

Martin picked up the win with a complete game shutout. The crafty left hander scattered five hits and allowed only two baserunners to reach third base all game.

The Mariners' best chance came in the fifth inning, where base knocks from E.J. Field and Caulin Rogers put runners on first and third with one down. Kellen Field then smashed a line drive to third base, but Tim Cashman made a leaping grab to finish off the inning.

Martin followed by getting through the next two innings without much of a threat.

"Joe is such a gamer, anything we need him to do he does it," Bolla said. "He's always competing and keeping teams off balance. We needed a big start out of him today and he gave it to us. "

Abbott was able to match Martin while he was on the mound as he tossed six scoreless innings, striking out three and allowing seven hits.

The Rams nearly opened the scoring in the third inning when a C.J. Ingraham line drive got into the gap in right. But Kellen Field quickly got the ball to second baseman Johnny Willcox, who fired a perfect relay throw to the plate to cut down a runner trying to score from second. The Mariners got out of the jam with a pop up.

Two innings later, Rowley ran into more trouble on the bases as it delivered four hits in the bottom of the fifth, but came away with no runs. Richie Williams doubled into the right center field gap, but a runner was cut down at the plate trying to score from first and Williams was then cut down at third base for a double-play.

Williams went on to score the winning run on Bolla's home run as he delivered a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning.