by Vinny Messana
At this stage of the season, all the teams in the CHSAA are very familiar with each other. For that reason, when tasked with facing a pitcher (Jimmy Conway) that shut them out earlier in the season, there was no reason to think gloom-and-doom.
Kellenberg (17-5) defeated St. Dominic’s (16-9) by the score of 5-3 to advance to the CHSAA finals against the winner of St. Anthony’s-St. John the Baptist.
Junior Chris Cappas is a highly-sought after pitcher (Photo Credit: Vinny Messana)
“It’s been like this all year,” said Head Coach Chris Alfalla. “Every game is the same. Every team is tough. We’ve faced this guy before–he blanked us–so we knew we were gonna be in for it. He did a good job, but we did a little better job,” he added.
Their junior southpaw, Chris Cappas, won his sixth game of the season with a CG allowing just one ER against a very tough St. Dominic’s lineup that features a potent combination of bats in John LaRocca, Justin Rodriguez, Justin Cancel, Jimmy Conway and Connor Sullivan.
The only inning he ran into trouble was in the sixth when the Bayhawks loaded the bases with one-out and Kevin Duffy lined a two-run single to right to cut the Firebird’s lead to 4-3. The runs were unearned due to an error by the shortstop on the previous batter.
The next batter, Greg Tan, lined a sinking liner to right field but Paul Conway made a terrific sliding catch to end the threat and maintain the Firebird’s 4-3 lead.
“These past few games have been tight, so you have to play tight defense,” said Conway. “I took a chance and I’m thankful that I made the catch,” he said.
The Firebirds extended their lead in the top of the seventh against reliever Connor Sullivan on an unearned run caused by a dropped fly ball in left field. It was the Bayhawks’ sixth error of the game.
Defense was certainly paramount in this game. In the top of the sixth inning, after the first batter was retired, the next three batters all reached on errors. A balk was also called on Conway and a HBP of Robert Weissheier added to the chaotic inning.
With the victory, the Firebirds are on the cusp of winning the CHSAA title for the first time since 2006. Since that time, four other teams have won. They will most likely have Cappas available on full rest for Sunday to start the 1pm game at Hofstra University.
