by Vinny Messana
Home field advantage is a beautiful thing–even when the fences more closely resemble playing in Yosemite National Park than the Washington Nationals park.
The Dowling Golden Lions held off Molloy’s eighth inning rally and won 8-6 in the first round of the ECC Postseason.
The difference in the ballgame was Dowling’s seven-run second inning off Ron Bauer–who led the ECC entering today with a 1.05 ERA but after his outing today it jumped to 1.94. The big blow was third baseman Bobby Morse‘s grand slam to left center field after Michael Rizzitello walked to load the bases.
“I was just trying to redeem myself after the first inning, making an error,” said Dowling’s third baseman in reference to his throwing error that allowed Molloy to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning. “It was huge I think it helped us out a lot,” he added.
It certainly did as Dowling’s starter Cody McPartland was able to settle in and fire 7.2 IP, allowing 3 ER while fanning eight. At one point he retired 11 in a row and 16 of 18.
“It’s always big–the first win is always big in a tournament like this,” he said. “They have some great hitters; Podell hits the ball well, Murphy, they all square the ball up. Just gotta go out there with my best stuff and attack them.”
McPartland worked with a high-octane 87-89 MPH fastball and mixed in a wicked slider in the high 70s that yielded plenty of swings-and-misses and uncomfortable hacks from the Lions.
Things did get a little dicey, though.
After Bauer was lifted in favor of Seth Noreman, the reliever fired five shutout innings which allowed the Lions to get back in the game.
McPartland ran into trouble in the eighth when he allowed a leadoff double to Kevin Podell. After an error by the second baseman and an RBI groundout by Anthony Alberghina, the lead was cut to 8-5 on a run-scoring single by Anthony Galanoudis.
That promoted Head Coach Tom Caputo to call upon Dominic Danetti to put out the fire.
He allowed a bloop single to right field to Elijah Leerdam to load the bases and then he hit Jack McCarty to bring in the third run of the inning.
Things were getting really interesting when leadoff man Deilyn Guzman ripped one that looked like a single but third baseman Dan Farina (who had just came in for defense) made a terrific diving play and stepped on the bag to end the inning.
Closer Andrew Sesto came on for the save. He allowed a leadoff single to Podell and a passed ball moved him up to second. The dangerous Angelo Navetta ripped a 1-2 change up up the middle but Sesto snagged it for the first out. It would’ve been a double play but the throw was dropped by Tyler Piccolo. It didn’t matter, as Sesto retired the final two batters and Piccolo converted the groundball into the final out of the game.
Dowling is now 25-22 on the season but, more importantly, they advance to the winner’s bracket where they will face the winner of Bridgeport-St. Thomas Aquinas tomorrow at 12pm.
McPartland improves to 6-4 on the season while Bauer drops to 7-2.Molloy will now have to win four consecutive elimination games if they are to advance to the NCAA regionals.
