Streaking Mounties earn return trip to Binghamton

BINGHAMTON - The Little Falls Mounties picked the right time to play their best baseball of the season, and they demonstrated again Saturday just how good they can be.

Senior right-hander Brayton Langdon held Section IV's championship team hitless into the seventh inning of 4-1 regional playoff win that earned the Mounties a spot in the Class C Final Four next weekend.

"We haven't really thought about it much," Langdon said. "We've been focused on winning sectionals, but we might as well go for it now."

Beating top seed Bishop Ludden of Syracuse earlier in the week gave Little Falls (20-3) its first Section III title since 2018. Saturday's win over the Schuyler Storm puts the Mounties in the state baseball semifinals for the first time since the 1982 team won the Class C-D championship at home at Veterans Memorial Park in the inaugural state tournament.

The state tournament will return Little Falls to Binghamton next weekend for potentially two days of competition. The Mounties meet Section I Tuckahoe at 5 p.m. Friday in the second Class C semifinal at Maine-Endwell High School; Section II Chatham and Section V Batavia-Notre Dame play earlier at 2 p.m.

"We're trying to get back some time," said catcher Chase Regan, Little Falls' other starting pitcher and one of four seniors on the team who lost their freshman year to the canceled coronavirus season in 2020. "It's win or die. If we want to keep playing, we've got to keep hitting like our careers depend on it."

Chatham (22-2) is the reigning state champion.

Little Falls and the Storm (11-10), a merged team representing the Watkins Glen and Odessa-Montour school districts, went scoreless for three innings with Jack Morotti recording the only hit. The Mounties broke through in the fourth, scoring the game's first run between having runners thrown out at the plate. Regan led off with a single and beat the throw to second base when Mike Hines, Schuyler's third baseman, tried to force the lead runner on Langdon's ground ball. The runners moved up and Derek Milianta was intentionally walked to load the bases one out later. Dominick Izzo grounded to second base with the infield playing in and the Storm got the force at home plate for the second out.

Xavier Dunn followed with a single to center field, sending Langdon home with the first run for Little Falls. Milianta followed Langdon around third base and was thrown out to end the inning.

Pitching with a lead for the first time, Langdon recorded his first 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fourth, starting a stretch of facing nine batters over three innings. He walked a batter with one out in the fifth inning and the Mounties turned a double play on the next batter to end the inning.

Leading off again, Regan was hit by a Daniel Lewis pitch to start the top of the sixth. Langdon singled and the runners tagged up on Wyatt Beadle's fly ball to right field. Regan scored when the throw to third base sailed out of play, and Milianta drove Langdon home with a single.

Lewis walked Morotti as his final batter as he met his pitch limit in the top of the seventh and Regan drove Morotti home with a triple.

Langdon was the final out in the top of the seventh and returned to the mound with a 4-0 lead and his no-hitter intact. Ben Heichel singled up the middle leading off for the Storm after Dunn, the Little Falls second baseman, got his glove on the ball on a foul popup but was unable to hold on for the catch.

Langdon walked the next batter and the runners advanced on a bunt. Brady Bockelkamp's blooper fell in for a hit to shallow left field, scoring Heichel, and a walk loaded the bases, bringing the winning run to the plate with two outs. Langdon struck out the next batter and ended the game with a fly ball to center field.

In addition to the double play behind him, Langdon picked up the defense by picking off the one runner that reached base on an error. Had he gotten through the seventh inning without allowing a hit it would have been the team's third no-hitter this spring.

"I really only used the fastball today," he said. "I pretty much beat them with one pitch today."

Little Falls has now won 13 consecutive games and the Mounties have allowed 13 runs in their last seven.

"That was a goal we talked about early in the year," said coach Bob Gollegly who went to the Class B Final Four as an Ilion junior in 2003. "Last year, we started so well, but we dipped here and there and lost our first game in sectionals. This year has been a slow build to get to where we are now."

More: Little Falls Mounties look back at state baseball championship 40 years later

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This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Little Falls travels to Binghamton for Class C baseball regional