St. Dominic HC Matt Prokopowicz following their 11-6 victory over St. Anthony’s pic.twitter.com/x7lo4FTFw5
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2021
In a single-elimination format with a week between games, typically you will be very aggressive employing relievers as any sign of a rally can be thwarted with a new pitcher. That was not the case today, as St. Dominic RHP Logan Gersbeck was efficient and kept the St. Anthony’s offense at bay for most of the game and his offense backed him with a five-run third inning as the Bayhawks advanced with an 11-6 victory and they will face Kellenberg next Monday.
Jack Vallario with an RBI single through the left side. St. Anthony’s leads 2-0 in the second pic.twitter.com/sWITdhcj6t
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2021
St. Anthony’s got off to a quick start in the second inning as they scored on RBI singles by Quintin Vizza and Jack Vallario. The rally began with a leadoff HBP of 1B Taj Farmer. After the next two batters were retired a walk to Anthony Capogna set the stage for Vizza’s RBI single. Another HBP advanced the runners and SS Vallario ripped one through the left side to make it a two-run game.
In that moment, it appeared that St. Dom’s may be quick to go to the bullpen with a week between the next scheduled playoff game, but rather Coach Prokopowicz showed confidence in his starter, a Stevenson-commit. He escaped further damage with a fly out to center field to end the inning.
St. Anthony’s RHP Jason DeCaro was able to throw a scoreless inning in the second, working around a leadoff single to Chris Sais and a walk issued to Enzo Carpentiere with a strikeout and a ground out to short.
In the third, Gersbeck carved through the middle of the order with three groundouts to give his team a chance to get to work.
That’s exactly what they did. Justin DiMartino started off the inning with a single to left. Sean Lane sent one through the wind to right center field for a game-tying HR – his first of the season. The offense did not stop there as they wound up knocking out DeCaro in that inning. A pair of RBI singles and a bases loaded HBP of DiMartino brought in the fifth run of the inning.
Gersbeck went out and fired a scoreless inning in the fourth inning to preserve the lead. The Bayhawks added a run in the fourth inning on a sac fly off the bat of Mike Petrucelly to score Albert Ramos.
The floodgates opened in the fifth inning when the strike zone eluded the Friars pitchers and the Bayhawks took advantage by putting up another five-spot to open up an 11-2 lead. The damage was done at that point, although the Friars did post one run in the sixth and three runs in the seventh to make it closer.
Gersbeck earned the win for the Bayhawks, going six innings, allowing three ER, striking out four and walking one. Sean Lane allowed three runs on four hits in the seventh inning.
For the Friars, DeCaro was tagged with the loss. He allowed five runs (two ER) over 2.2 IP. Despite the loss, the Friars actually outhit the Bayhawks, 10-6. Quintin Vizza, Jack Vallario and Alex Celiero notched multi-hit games.
The Bayhawks will have a week to prepare for No. 1 seed Kellenberg. That should be a great match up
