Why was this victory so sweet?

With tears, laughter and cheers, the Blue Bombers celebrated a 5-3 championship win that wouldn’t have been possible without the efforts of each and every player.

On June 16, Harris Field was packed with friends, family, and Malverne baseball fans of who wanted to watch the ultimate Little League showdown: the Blue Bombers vs. the Green Grenades. 

The Blue Bombers had made the championships a year ago, but lost by one run. That loss, coach Tim Fitzpatrick said, only made them want it more.

“They had the hunger again to win it this time,” Fitzpatrick said.

The game began with a four-inning pitching battle where both pitchers refusing to budge an inch. John Giovino, 10, didn’t give up a run for his duration as pitcher.

When both pitchers reached their 75-pitch limit in the fifth inning, things shifted and the scoreless trend ended by the bottom of the fifth. The Blue Bombers found themselves down 3-0.

For any other team, the resulting loss of morale might have signaled the end — but this was the kind of scenario that required the exact skills that coaches Carmine Giovino, Fitzpatrick, and Brian Connor fostered in the kids throughout the season.

“The coaches, we had this sort of mantra all year,” Giovino said. “We don’t care if you make mistakes, if you make an error, strike out. There’s a lot of different ways that you can help the team — even if it’s just supporting your friends.”

“We don’t want to see you give up before the game’s over,” he added. “Just stay in the moment.”

Though, it would be hard for anyone to not feel dejected when you’re losing by during the penultimate inning of the championship game — let alone a team of 3rd and 4th graders who had been working all season for this. But in true Blue Bomber fashion, teammates rallied around each other, and the game was on once more.

“Everybody was saying it’s over — including me, actually,” John Giovino said. “And then one of my older friend’s came up to me and said it only takes one hit to get it started going.”

That one hit belonged to Trae Richards, who was John’s relief pitcher. Trae is fast, John said — fast enough to beat out an infield hit and get on base. His hit changed everything.

“And after that it was just hit after hit after hit,” John said.

“They got down late in the game and they fought back,” Connor said. “I think that’s what sports teaches them, when you’re down you have to try to find a way to get back up.”

Giovino described it as floodgates opening. The Blue Bombers went from zero to putting five runs on the board — the maximum allowed per inning for a little league game. Even better, the runs were scored by players without a reputation for hitting.

“The kids who have been working really hard all year, with up-and-down levels of success, came through in the biggest moments,” coach Giovino said.

Fitzpatricks said one of the highlights of the game was when that fifth and final run was scored by a player in his first year of baseball. It was his first hit of the season. The Blue Bombers held their opponents for the top of the sixth, and the game was over.

“[Trae] threw the last strike, and I watched him fall to the floor crying happy tears,” said Jo Richards, Trae’s mom. “And then seeing everybody come around and all of them together just hugging each other and tearing up and celebrating — it was just such a beautiful moment.”

Trae told his mother that it was a moment he’d never forget for the rest of his life. Jo added that the win was that much better because every single kid made a huge difference in that championship game, and that sentiment was shared by all three coaches.

“This whole season, and the playoffs and the championship game, every kid walked away being like ‘I contributed to that,” coach Giovino said.

The Blue Bombers’championship season wouldn’t have been possible without the relationships that were made, which Richards said was more than a friendship — it was a brotherhood. John and Connor’ son Andrew both said that by the end of the season, they were friends with everybody on their team.

“I definitely feel like the kids, if they feel like their friends are going to be supportive no matter what, they play with a lot more confidence,” Connor said.

For the kids, the biggest takeaway of the season was that “you’re not alone in this,” Fitzpatrick said. “You have other people to pick you up.

“Making mistakes is okay, that’s how you learn. Just get back up, and keep going.”