Final (8 innings): Chaminade 2, St. Anthony’s 1
WP: Andrew HeiderstadtVin Roman go-ahead hit to score Anthony Lods pic.twitter.com/7wqqhZAOgZ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 30, 2021
When you hear about the CHSAA being the most competitive league on Long Island, it’s because of the parity. This week was an excellent example in the series between Chaminade and St. Anthony’s. In the rematch of the 2019 championship series, the teams exchanged victories on Tuesday and Wednesday in the first two games of the series setting the stage for today.
Chaminade was able to come away with the 2-1 victory, with the go-ahead run scoring in the top of the 8th inning on an RBI single by Vin Roman to score Anthony Lods – who led off the inning with a walk. As is usually the case, the leadoff walk came around to score and it was the difference in the game.
The match up was senior Andrew Kontos for the Friars and JJ Gatti for the Flyers. The wind played a major role in this game, as the gusts were blowing at 30+ MPH straight in which made any pop up an adventure and made some well-struck balls nothing but foul balls out of play.
Neither offense amounted much in the early going. They traded zeros for two innings. In the bottom of the third inning, Gatti blinked first. After retiring the leadoff batter, he walked Michael DeSantis, Jack Vallario and Dom Gentile in succession as the wind appeared to really impact his command. The righty is typically known for his strike throwing ability but walked five in this game – although he did not allow a hit. DeSantis wound up scoring on a wild pitch. To Gatti’s credit, he did not allow the walls to cave in and was able to bear down and strike out Taj Farmer and Eddie Lippert on nasty curveballs.
Friars’ RHP Andrew Kontos worked around a two-out double by Tyler Burke and ended the inning on an inning-ending pop out to first.
Gatti went back out for the fourth and worked around a hit by pitch of Alex Celeiro with a strikeout and double play. His work was double after the fourth inning, his final line was 4.0 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 6 BB and threw 83 pitches.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Flyers got on the board. Matt Travaglia led off with a single off the third baseman’s glove. He was sacrificed to second base by Binghamton-commit Nick Ungania. Hofstra-commit Thomas Lebrecht single to left field to put runners on the corners with one out. Columbia-commit Nolan Nawrocki came up and bounced one back to the mound which should’ve been an inning-ending double play but Kontos hesitated before throwing to second and it allowed the tying-run to score. The next batter, Anthony Lods, was called out for interfering while Nawrocki was attempting to steal second.
Andrew Heiderstadt came on in relief for the Flyers and he was outstanding. He worked in-and-out of trouble in the fifth which was due to two walks but he stranded runners on second and third with a strikeout of Taj Farmer.
In the sixth, the Flyers got a base runner on a hit by pitch of Burke but the inning was ended on a great leaping play by second baseman Dom Gentile off the bat of Matt Brandt.
Connor McCreery came on in relief for the Friars. He worked around a one-out walk by Nick Ungania, who stole second, to strikeout Lebrecht and induce a ground out off the bat of Nawrocki.
The Friars were hoping to walk it off and they had their first hit of the game on a single by Azzarelli and a walk was drawn by Jack Vallario but Heiderstadt came up big once again with a strikeout of Farmer after falling behind 3-0.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Flyers took advantage of a leadoff walk drawn by Anthony Lods, who was sacrificed to second by Brady Steinert. Vin Roman stepped up and delivered the clutch hit with an RBI single to center to score Lods and send his team into a frenzy. McCreery struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
In the home half of the inning, Heiderstadt went back out for his 4th inning and he struck out two the slam the door shut on the series victory.
