by Vinny Messana
Chris Cepeda said he was so excited for this start that he didn’t get any sleep last night.
By the looks of it, though, you would think the University of Bridgeport hitters were the sleepless ones.
He fired a CG, allowing three earned runs with four strikeouts to improve to 7-0 in his freshman season and advance Dowling to the ECC Championship game against the winner of Molloy-Bridgeport.
“I’ve been waiting all season for this,” said the Ward Melville grad. “I don’t even know how to explain it, I’ve just been excited and I couldn’t sleep last night.”
He sliced through the Bridgeport lineup using his low 3/4 delivery and nasty two-seamer and slider combo all day. He needed 110 pitches to continue his undefeated season.
After both teams went scoreless through two innings, the Golden Lions broke out for three runs in the third inning off Dakota Edwards.
Chris Appell had his first of three hits when he laced a one-out single to get the rally going. Leadoff batter Tim Going smacked an RBI triple to right-center field to score Appell and get Dowling on the board.The following batter, Kenneth Fils-Aime grounded a single up the middle to score Going and increase the lead to 2-0. Yesterday’s hero, Bobby Morse, grounded a single through the 5.5 hole on the left side to score Fils-Aime and provide Cepeda with some cushion.
“When you get three runs on the board like that, it makes your job a lot easier,” he said. “All you gotta do is throw strikes and my defense is good enough they’re gonna have my back no matter what,” he added.
Dowling added another run in the sixth on an RBI single by Appell, who also made some sparkling plays in the deepest part of the park in center field with his back to the infield.
Cepeda continued to pile up zeros through seven but ran into a bit of trouble in the eighth when the Knights got a leadoff triple from Justin Carey who then scored on an RBI groundout by Jose Negron. Cepeda was able to retire the side without any further damage.
In the ninth, after he struck out the first batter he allowed a single to Alec Jannotta, who came around to score on a long two-run shot by Alnaydo Rodriguez, which temporarily put the game in question, but Cepeda was able to bear down and retire the next two batters to close the deal.
Cepeda noted that there was no consideration of coming out of the game.
“Cap asked me, “you alright?” and I was like ‘Cap, c’mon, you’re not taking me outta this game!”
That type of confidence has allowed Cepeda to be named the ECC Rookie of the Year. He has the Golden Lions on the brink of winning the conference, which will earn them an automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA regionals at Franklin Pierce.
