No-Hitter Vaults New York To Little League World Series

Try to accomplish something that nobody from your area has done in 44 years, people may say you are dreaming. When you want your baseball dreams to come true, limit the other team to NO HITS and you have a pretty good chance of seeing those goals come to fruition, no matter what anyone says. As New Yorkers dream of a Subway Series between the Yankees and Mets, one Empire State baseball team has made their World Series dream a reality.

Massapequa Coast Little League is going to the the World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. According to Mike Ruiz of newsday.com, 12 year-old Joey Lionetti pitched a no-hitter against Toms River East, New Jersey Friday night. The 4-0 victory made Massapequa Coast the first Long Island team to make it to Williamsport since Rockville Centre went in 1978.

Get our free mobile app

Ruiz reported that Lionetti struck out nine and allowed four baserunners. “I just wanted to put a zero or two hits on the board tonight,” Lionetti told Newsday. “It feels great. After the third inning, I noticed that they weren’t catching up to my fastball or seeing my curveball.”

Massapequa coach Roland Clark said his team had to forgo some other plans due to this magical run. “We were actually booked to go to Cooperstown on Monday,” Clark told Ruiz. “And we are not trading this feeling in. Thank you, Cooperstown, but we have a bunch of pins to trade in at Williamsport. This says a lot about Long Island baseball. This is so exciting and I can’t wait for the boys to wake up tomorrow and realize what they’ve done.”

World Series play begins for Massapequa Coast next Friday at 7pm, as they will take on the winner of West vs. Northwest game to be played on Wednesday. You can follow all of New York's World Series run on the ESPN networks.