Babylon Little League’s spring season came to a crowd-pleasing finish two weeks ago with the championships of both the minor and major divisions, which took place under the lights for the second year at the baseball field on Locust Avenue.

Waldbaum’s, the major division (11 and 12 year olds) champion for the last two years, edged the Babylon Fire Department in the title game by a score of 4-2 on Wednesday evening. On Friday night, Mario’s Hi Hook came back from a deficit to beat Tradewinds Deli, 8-5 in the minor division (nine and 10 year olds) championship.

Superb fielding and strong pitching by both Waldbaum’s and the Fire Department kept Wednesday’s contest tight until the end. The Fire Department’s Domenick Delledera thwarted scoring opportunities for Waldbaum’s in both the second and fourth innings with acrobatic defensive plays at first base. Brett Hammond, a hurler for Waldbaum’s, got out of several jams and kept his team in the game with speedy pitching.

In the top of the fifth inning, with runners at second and third base, the Fire Department’s Timothy Schweitzer tied the game at two with an RBI single.

Waldbaum’s responded in the bottom of that inning on a wild play, in which Ricardo Adames’ double drove in the runner from second base. As Adames gambled on an attempt to reach third on the same play, an errant throw from the Fire Department outfield trickled into the Waldbaum’s dugout, allowing him to reach home and make the score 4-2.

After that, the Fire Department’s players enthusiastically returned to the dugout, eager for a chance to reclaim the lead. The team showed an inkling of a comeback when a runner reached second in the top of the sixth, but the Fire Department’s tenacious rally was extinguished by the cool relief pitching of Andy Lorch of Waldbaum’s, who said afterwards, "I’ve been in closer games." With two outs, a Lorch pitch was popped into foul territory in the vicinity of Waldbaum’s first basemen Luke Horstmann, who scaled the field’s fence to snag both the flyball and the championship.

"I could have given the game ball to a bunch of players," said Jerry Egan, coach of Waldbaum’s, which won its third straight championship.

Hammond, who according to his coach has posted a 16-0 record over the last three years in games started, just happened to finish extensive physical therapy for soreness in his throwing arm the day of the game. "It felt great," said Hammond of his arm. "I’m excited [about the win]."

On Friday night, the battle between Mario’s Hi Hook and Tradewinds Deli was seen by about 250 fans, estimated a league official. Those in attendance witnessed a comeback victory by Mario’s Hi Hook.

Tradewinds Deli led 5-0 after three-and-a-half innings, but in the bottom of the fourth Mario’s Hi Hook took a bite out of that advantage, starting with a lead-off walk by Alex Grandal. Grandal then stole second and when the second basemen lost control of the catcher’s throwout attempt, Grandal took third. Steven Morvay created more offensive sparks with a hard line drive to leftfield, which drove in Grandal for the first run. Next, Morvay advanced to second on a groundball out and then sneakily continued to third before the Tradewinds Deli infield could respond. David Montalbano’s screaming triple down the rightfield line allowed Morvay to cross home plate and make the score 5-2.

In the bottom of the fifth, Mario’s Hi Hook scored on three bases-loaded walks to tie the game at five. Later in the inning, Morvay walked with the bases loaded to give his team a 6-5 lead. Mario’s Hi Hook then added two more insurance runs, ending the inning with an 8-5 edge.

After Tradewinds Deli returned to its dugout before the sixth inning, team coach Rich Dell’isola encouraged his players by saying, "We’ve had a great year and we’ve got one more chance. Let’s go out and have fun." With runners at second and third, Tradewinds Deli posed a threat to tie the game, but Mario’s Hi Hook allowed no more runs and claimed the minor division title.

After the game, Dell’isola expressed pride in his team, pointing out that Tradewinds Deli reached the championship game despite finishing fifth in the division. The opposing coach, Matt Morvay, was proud of his own team, saying, "We came back all year. We must have done that seven out of 10 games."