Final: Kellenberg 3, St. Anthony’s
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WP: Chris Cappas (5-1)Kellenberg clinches No. 1 seed and bye in the postseason next week pic.twitter.com/Ju8iKeHfuv
aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 12, 2017
With first place on the line, Kellenberg put the ball in the hands of the reigning CHSAA Pitcher of the Year, Chris Cappas, and let him do what he does. The senior, who has routinely silenced the opposition’s bats this season, did that today as well.
He fired 6.2 shutout innings, earning his fifth win of the season, and delivered Kellenberg their second consecutive CHSAA regular season title. He was supported by captain Jack Delaney, who ripped a two-run single in the fifth inning to left-center field, which was the difference in this game. Cappas extended his scoreless streak to 18.2 IP.
“Jack’s been great all year, he’s a captain, he’s a leader, he’s awesome,” said Head Coach Chris Alfalla. “He’s a returning All-League second baseman, he’s a great kid,” he added.
Cappas was up to his usual dominance, but his counterpart, Colin Kehoe, was just as effective. Both pitchers fired zeros for the first four innings–although it took some tremendous defense by St. Anthony’s left fielder Noah Fortuna to keep the game knotted at 0-0.
In the second inning, Justin Renner led off with a single and stole second. After the next two batters were retired, Jonah Katz smoked a single to left and Renner was waved around by the third base coach. Fortuna came up firing and threw a strike to nail him on a bang-bang play to end the frame.
In the fourth inning, Nick Quatromani walked and stole second (the second of five stolen bases on the day), before Jason Diaz stepped to the plate. The sophomore ripped one and it appeared it would fall for an extra-base hit but Fortuna laid out and robbed the Miami-commit of a hit and kept the Firebirds off the board yet again.
They finally broke through in the fifth, when Katz reached to start the inning on a hit by pitch. He advanced on a bunt single by Terrance Murray. Andrew Russell singled to load the bases, before Delaney’s clutch hit got them on the board, and put them up for good.
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“I knew it was a really big spot for our team,” said Delaney. “Bases loaded, nobody out, I knew I had to come through for everybody. I got to 3-2 and I knew a fastball was coming so I sat on that and I did my best to get a hit.”
He added that once they had a lead, they had the utmost confidence in Cappas to make it stand up.
“We know when he’s on the mound, especially how great he is, a couple runs is all we need,” he added.
Cappas stated once he got a lead, it made his job a lot easier.
“As the game went on, we finally broke it open and that was huge,” he said. He contributed an RBI single after Delaney’s hit to extend the lead to 3-0.
Cappas wound up throwing 6.2 IP, striking out four and allowing only a single to Jake Barrett and Nick Wanderlingh. He hit the pitch-limit of 105 with two outs in the seventh, giving way to Mike Laskowski, who set down the final batter to clinch the No. 1 seed for Kellenberg.
They improve to 14-4 on the season and have a bye next week, as they look to repeat as CHSAA champs.
