Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Anthony Fontana who fired a complete game allowing two runs and working out of a couple jams in Wantagh’s 5-2 victory over Division in Game 1 of the Nassau Class A Finals pic.twitter.com/HT0UZH7lsc
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2018
It starts with pitching and defense and for the past 12 games, that has been the recipe for the Wantagh Warriors (22-2). They have not lost since April 26 and remarkably haven’t yielded more than three runs during that period.
Their ace, Anthony Fontana, fired another CG in the Warriors’ 5-2 victory over Division (20-5). He is now 9-1 o the season and 22-1 in his varsity career. He was backed by an offense that scored four runs in the first inning of Post-commit Nick Fressle; although it was no fault of his own.
Mason McLane with a two-run bloop single and Wantagh has a 3-0 lead in the first. This all occurred after two out, nobody on and Division committed two infield errors pic.twitter.com/6hhN6JYFAs
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2018
After Fressle retired the first two batters, Fontana rolled over on a grounder to second base but it was mishandled by the second baseman. The following batter, Pat Willix, chopped one to SS but it was also mishandled. Wantagh is not a team that you can afford to make those mistakes against and they made them pay. Ethan Rockitter ripped an RBI double down the line to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead. The ensuing batter, Mason McLane, extended that lead with a bloop 2-R single over the head of Jayson Melgar. They broke it open further on an RBI single by Rich Kirchner. None of these runs should’ve counted but Division was tasked with erasing that four-run deficit.
Fontana was brilliant when it mattered most, he erased a single by Melgar in the second with a 1-6-3 double play to ensure he put up a scoreless inning following the four-run outburst.
Fressle was outstanding from that point on, he allowed only one run in the fourth inning on an RBI ground out by Anthon Vano to score Anthony D’Onofrio. Division got on the board in the fourth on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Jake Thomas to score Hunter Traenkle.
Their biggest threat came in the fifth inning off Fontana when he walked the leadoff batter and allowed consecutive singles by Colin Diez and Matt Cavanagh to load the bases with 0 out. In classic fashion, Fontana induced a 4-6-3 DP to allow a run but put out the fire. He hit Traenkle with a pitch but picked him off to retire the side.
They went 1-2-3 in the sixth and seventh inning to allow the Wantagh Warriors to win the first game of the best-of-three series. The teams will be back at it tomorrow at 7pm at SUNY Old Westbury.
