The gray clouds parted ever so slightly, revealing a sliver of blue over the Hudson. In a week with nothing but rain, the timing was perfect. It was all Downtown Little League’s Wolves and Crawfords hoped for on June 23 to determine the Major Division champions.

“Man, I just want to play!” said Wolves pitcher Lee Perry, as he cleaned the mud from his cleats before the game. “I went to sleep early last night, woke up this morning and ate my French toast. I just want to go.”

Perry channeled that spirit into three quick outs as the rain fell harder onto the already muddy Battery Park City field. At bat, he drove in the game’s first run.

The lead was short-lived. With one out in the top of the second, Justin Wenig walked and Brody Sharoff drove the ball deep into the left-center gap. Wenig flew past second and third, racing to beat the relay. Catcher Louis Moreschi dropped his shin-guard across the third-base side of home plate, absorbing the blow of the late slide and making the tag. Wenig was out. Or was he? The umpires called him safe, citing the Little League rule against blocking a base. In the confusion that followed, Sharoff was called out for leaving the base path, but the score was tied 1-1.

The pitchers traded zeros as Perry struck out eight Crawfords batters in five innings, and Wenig fanned 10 in four and one-third innings.

As a steady rain fell, Perry collected himself behind the mound before striking out Roman Junceau on three pitches. It appeared the Wolves could deadlock the score at one. But with two outs and the rain threatening the completion of the game, Liam Fuerst drove in two runs and put his team ahead by two. Perry struck out the next batter, to hold the 3-1 score.

The Wolves would go quietly in the bottom of the fifth, but the storm gave a final push, enough to send the game—one inning from completion—to the following Tuesday, and drier weather.

With left-hander Louis Moreschi on the mound for the Wolves, Nathan Goldberg walked and moved to second on a single by Connor Cimino. Samuel Frere-Holmes then singled right back up the middle to score Goldberg and push the lead to 4-1. After walking Brody Sharoff, Moreschi induced a pop-up to the shortstop and a fielder’s-choice to keep the game within reach. But Crawfords’ closer Samuel Frere-Holmes kept the Wolves at bay and sealed the championship title, 4-1.

With cider sprayed, and trophies awarded, there was just one final order of business. “[You] said if we won the championship, you would get us all ice cream,” a Wolves player reminded his coach. And after a game that unofficially lasted 77 hours and 23 minutes under the sloppiest of conditions, for the Crawfords, victory had never tasted so sweet.