Mansion on Broadway Wins League and Playoff Men’s Softball Championships
It was a beautiful summer evening at Carl J. Delfino Park, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, as the number one seed Mansion on Broadway and the number two seed Dunnes Pub squared-off in the 2015 White Plains Recreation Department Men’s Thursday Night League Playoff Championship.
Mansion on Broadway proved to be the best team in the Men’s Thursday Night League, during the regular season, while capturing the League Championship with a 12-2 record. Nonetheless, Dunnes was having a resurgent year and playing well enough of late to notch the number two seed with a 9-5 record.
The White Plains Rec Playoff Championship is a best two-out-of three-games series with the Men’s Thursday Night League opting to play a doubleheader in the first two games. The Third Game of the series, if necessary, was scheduled for Thursday Night, Sept. 3.
However, Game Three became completely unnecessary, as Mansion on Broadway swept the Playoff Championship by winning Game One, in a blowout, 20-8 and Game Two, in a slugfest, 18-14.
“We won the league in 2012 but it was a league below this league. We won the Fall League last year but to win this (summer) league is a monkey off our backs. It feels so good,” said Mansion on Broadway Manager Joe Pasqualini.
Regardless of the scores both games were very competitive. Dunnes got on the scoreboard first in Game One, as the Giuliano brothers, Drew and Anthony hit back-to-back-doubles.
But Mansion came right back in the bottom of the inning when speedster Jay Zaccaria hit a single and scored from first base on an RBI single by John Bruno. MOB leader and shortstop Nick Beccera, Jr. then doubled to score a run and tagged on a sacrifice fly, putting MOB, in the lead, 3-1.
Mansion thought they broke the game open in the second inning when Matt Moeller slammed a two run double for two of his five RBI in the game. Then the “banquet hall brawlers” scored two more runs in the inning and had a comfortable, 7-2 lead.
But Dunnes fought back, scoring six runs in the bottom of the third inning to take the lead 8-6, which was highlighted by Dunnes Manager and designated hitter Bill Davis, Jr. swatting a two-run homerun.
Davis, Jr. whose father Bill Davis, Sr. also plays on the team, was not even supposed to play the final month of the season due to a torn labrum. Davis, Jr. is the everyday pitcher for Dunnes, he returned to play the final week of the regular season and in the playoffs but as a designated hitter. This is just one example of the spirit and competitiveness encompassing the White Plains Recreation Softball Leagues.
But MOB also displayed their passion for the game. Mansion rallied with two outs to score four runs in the bottom of the third inning to take the lead back 8-6, as Dean Chiapparelli slammed a two-run homerun, after Ray Russo hit a two-run double.
From that point of the game: Mansion pitcher Mike Zambonardi took over backed by an impregnable defense. Zambonardi relinquished only one more run the entire game and Mansion won that all-important Game One, 20-9.
“Everyone going to hit in softball; it is just about making the easy plays. The pitching is all about changing heights, I just have a knuckle ball, but it is all about mixing the heights of each pitch,” stated Zambonardi.
Zambonardi was a key element in Mansion’s successful season this year. After Mansion went 3-2 in June, Manager Pasqualini decided to pitch Zambonardi and return Becerra, Jr. to his natural position at shortstop. The defensive move proved insurmountable, as MOB went undefeated in July and August and went on to win the League and gain the number one seed in the Playoffs.
In the deciding Game Two, Dunnes returned to their old ways of hitting line-drive base hits, which helped the Shapham Place pub, put together two of their best innings in the Playoff Championship.
In the fourth inning with Mansion running away with the game, 12-2, Dunnes scored seven runs to close the gap 12-9, when Anthony Giuliano led-off by hitting his second homerun of the game. Although MOB gave Dunnes some helped that inning, by committing four errors.
Nonetheless, besides a second inning, 2-2, tie, when Dunnes A. Giuliano sailed a two-run homerun over the leftfield fence, Mansion led the entire game and walked away with an 18-14 win and the Men’s Thursday Night Playoff Championship Trophy.
“We were so confident this year that we were the best team. We never really felt any pressure and we never really felt that we were out of any game,” exclaimed Pasqualini.
“It is great to sponsor these guys,” commented Michael Pasqualini, the Proprietor of Mansion on Broadway. “On top of knowing these guys for many years and witnessing their ups and downs, to watch them play ball and always stick together is great. They fight just like any other team, but they win,” said Pasqualini, who will be hosting a party at Mansion on Broadway for the 2015 White Plains Rec Men’s Thursday Night Softball League and Playoff Champions.
