by Chris Amato
In a classic pitcher’s duel, Pat-Med’s Josh Rovner, pitched his tail off in a rare nine-inning complete game over William Floyd.
Rovner matched up against William Floyd’s ace, Hunter Kaucky. Rover’s gem propelled his team to a 4 -1 victory at Ducks Stadium. Rover was dominant throughout the entire course of the game and proved himself as one of LI’s finest. The Adelphi commit used advanced arsenal of pitches to keep Floyds lineup off the board.
Rovner’s only hiccup came in the bottom of the 7th when he walked Micheal Bradley, who would eventually come around to score on a throwing error by the left fielder to tie the game and send it to extras. After that Rovner maintained his dominance in last two innings in order to close the door on William Floyd. He finished with a total of 1 earned run, on 4 hits while striking out 7 batters.
When Rovner was asked if he was fazed at all by fatigue or pressure during his performance, he said “I just had to got out there and stay calm. I had the team behind me, I’m confident in my defense.”
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana
The game started with both pitchers quickly taking control and breezing through the first three innings. It would be Pat-Med to strike first off of a double by first basemen, Frank Papanikolatos, who would come around to score on an RBI by Eric Roubal. The game remained 1-0 until Floyd made their 7th inning rally that would tie the game and force it to extras.
After a scoreless 8th the Pat-Med bats would come alive in the 9th to place the games deciding runs on the board. Pat-Med posted 3 runs, two of which would be scored on a 2RBI single by Papanikolatos. Rovner would then make his way out to the mound for his 9th and final time.
Pat-Med head coach, Tony Frascogna, was confident that this win would have a positive effect on his teams next few games early in this season. After speaking with him, he felt his team would receive a confidence boost after falling on the losing end of the past couple of games.
Pat-Med now heads home to begin a three game series with Sachem East on Monday, 4/18.
