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| Photo Credit: St. Joseph’s Athletics |
Written by Jim Ferchland
It was scoreless game through 5 innings at Gregg Alfano Field in Patchogue between St. Joseph’s and Briarcliffe. Both offenses struggled to get going in the frigid, cold, weather.
Briarcliffe was able to put numbers on the board first thanks to a Zach Mastrangelo RBI single to right field, driving in Nick Marzano to give Briarcliffe a 1-0 lead in the 6th. They would not be able to capitalize on anything else throughout the game. a flurry of Golden Eagles pitchers–nine to be exact–kept throwing up zeros.
The offense came to life in the bottom of the sixth inning when James Nakashian beat out an infield single to first–which scored Anthony Andreani, who opened up the frame with a single.
St. Joseph’s relief pitcher Anthony Rizzo got St. Joseph’s through a 1-2-3 inning as he was frustrating hitters with his nasty breaking ball. He got Briarcliffe’s Gus Mejia to strike out looking at slow breaking ball.
The bottom of the 7th was a nightmare inning for Briaffcliffe, as they allowed 5 runs and used three relief pitchers. Anthony Andreani began the rally with an RBI single bringing in pinch runner Matt Burnett. He pinch ran for lead-off hitter Brendan Sullivan who was hit by a fastball on the first pitch. Later on the inning with the bases juiced, St. Joseph’s Joe Lynn smashed a single directly over the pitcher which drove in Joe Calabrese. Next batter, Anthony Bonilla hit a sac fly to deep center as Anthony Andreani scored giving St. Joseph’s a 4-1 advantage. Nakashian was next at bat as Briafcliffe’s reliever Michael Janke threw a pitch in the dirt that got away from Briaffcliffe’s junior catcher Bryan Dromerhauser which increased the lead to 5-1. To conclude the tremendous offensive damage St. Joseph’s produced in the half inning, Nick Girardi used his wheels to score as Dromerhauser attempted to pickoff Nakashian at second base.
Quotes: St. Joseph’s head coach Rich Garrett:
“I think our key today was patience”, Garrett said after the game. We waited for the right pitches and we took advantage of those opportunities. “We used nine pitchers today to balance out our relievers and played flawless today. Now, we need to prepare for our doubleheader on Saturday.”
