Bases clearing triple Cameron Dunn and St. Anthony’s has a 4-0 lead in the first inning pic.twitter.com/EYUltOOBk4
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 22, 2019
There’s nothing quite as anxiety-inducing like elimination playoff baseball, but those tensions are certainly eased by 17-run outputs.
For the third straight game, St. Anthony’s was able to stave off elimination and win to keep their 2019 season alive following last week’s first round loss to Kellenberg. Tonight they were able to get retribution with a 17-7 win over the Firebirds to continue to advance in the losers’ bracket. They will face a very difficult No. 2 seed St. John the Baptist on Thursday night in West Islip.
Tonight they got to a huge start against Saint Anselm-commit Frank Roder. They took advantage of walks to Cameron Leary, Marco Ali, Anthony Locurto and Steven Rizzo before Cameron Dunn made him pay with a bases-clearing triple to open up a 4-0 lead. They added a fifth run on an RBI single by Tyler Podolsky.
Jake Barrett, normally a position player, certainly looked comfortable on the mound tonight.
He went six innings, allowing just two ER on seven strikeouts, four hits and three walks was largely able to keep the Firebirds offensive attack at bay. After firing a 1-2-3 first inning, he allowed his offense to get back to work.
Back to the top of the order, the Friars put up four more runs in the second inning started off once again by Leary, who singled, stole second and came around to score on Barrett’s RBI single to left. They added another run on Cameron Dunn’s RBI infield single and Jack Vallario‘s two-run single.
They opened up a 10-0 lead in the third inning on a triple by Leary, who came around to score on a wild pitch. He was 3-for-4 with two walks, four runs scored and three stolen bases.
The Firebirds got on the board in the third inning after a dropped pop up prolonged the inning and allowed the red-hot Kristian Rafsol to drill a two-run single to cut the deficit to 10-2. Unfortunately, that was as close as they would get.
The Friars added five runs in the fourth on RBI singles by Jake Barrett, Marco Ali, Tyler Podolsky and Jack Vallario. All told, they had five players record multi-RBI games.
The 2017 & 2018 CHSAA champions scored three runs in the fifth and two in the seventh to make it 17-7. Their season came to an end.
As for the Friars, they are red-hot and riding a wave of confidence right now. They bring the league’s hottest offense into tomorrow’s match up against the reigning champs. They will certainly have a battle on their hands against a great pitching staff and one of the brightest coaching staffs on the island.
Expect a close game, but don’t count out the Friars who will have Billy Fitzgerald and Louis Stallone available on full rest. The winner of that game will take on No. 1 Chaminade at Hofstra on Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-three Championship series.
