A bases clearing triple for Tom Force gives SJB an 8-5 lead in the sixth ! pic.twitter.com/wlUpdSOpOy
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2018
What began as a 5-0 game that appeared to be in-hand, turned into a wild nail-biter that was capped by a bases-clearing triple by Tom Force, the second of its kind for the St. John the Baptist Cougars in their 8-5 victory over Chaminade.
Chaminade threatened to put a rally together in the bottom of the seventh, getting the tying run to the plate, but SS E.J. Exposito came in and promptly struck out three batters, with his last pitch registering at 87 MPH to end the game.
The Cougars got out to an early lead in this one. Force hit an RBI single and catcher Logan O’Hoppe ripped a bases-clearing double to open up a 4-0 lead. O’Hoppe just finished one of the finest seasons in CHSAA history with a .511 batting average and .662 OBP during the regular season. They added a fifth run on a throwing error by the pitcher on a pick off attempt. This was in the third inning, and with Cougars LHP Kevin Czeczotka cruising, they appeared on their way to an easy victory.
That changed in the fifth inning when the southpaw ran into some command issues. He allowed a leadoff single to Nick Jaskolski and a walk to Logan Koester and Brendan O’Hara. After a fly out, he threw two wild pitches that allowed the Flyers to creep to within three. The threat was ended when he picked off a runner at first, with his patented move.
In the top of the sixth with two-out and nobody on, Jack Peluso hit a ground ball to SS. Exposito ranged far to his right and showed off his strong arm. The throw beat Peluso and the call was originally called an out, as the Cougars ran off the field. But wait, the umpires conferred and ruled that the throw brought the first baseman off the bag and Peluso was ruled safe; much to the dismay of the SJB faithful. After a walk to Jaskolski and an RBI double by Koester, O’Hara tied the game with a run-run double to left and that evened the score at 5-5.
In the bottom of the sixth, Giancarlo Giacometti started things off with a walk, he was bunted to second which forced Chaminade to intentionally walk O’Hoppe, but Will Shaw drew a walk to load the bases. With nowhere to put Force, he turned on a high-fastball and smacked one to right field to bring in all three runners and send the home crowd into a frenzy.
Giacometti came back out for the seventh inning to close the door but ran into trouble and put two runners on base. Coach McKay went to Exposito, who hasn’t pitched much at all but has a high-octane fastball. He struck out Paul Orbon and Aidan Larkin to pour cold water on Chaminade’s rally and then ended the game with his best fastball; 87-MPH up in the zone.
With the victory, they advance to face St. Dominic, who defeated St. Anthony’s, 1-0, behind Carlos Hidalgo‘s shutout.
