Chaminade LHP John Downing on his complete game gem to send Chaminade in the Championship series pic.twitter.com/Q4XMnYbwWg
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021
Pitching and defense is the name of the game in the CHSAA and Chaminade has always thrived in that category. In the ultra-competitive Catholic League, the difference between a win and a loss is sometimes a defensive miscue or failed bunt attempt. That was the case as No. 2 Chaminade edged No. 3 St. John the Baptist, 2-1, to advance to the CHSAA Championship Series against Kellenberg on Wednesday.
Chaminade knew they had a tall order in facing St. John the Baptist ace RHP Kyle Chase (St. John’s-commit) who has the ability to shut down any opponent. What he can’t control, though, is what happens once the ball goes in play. The Cougars defense – typically stout – betrayed him in the first inning which was the different in the game. Mike Sweeney led off the first inning by getting hit by a pitch to reach. Vin Roman dropped down a great bunt that was going to advance Sweeney to second, but an errant throw by the third baseman allowed both runners to reach and Sweeney to get to third. After a pop out to first base, Chase coaxed a grounder to short that had 6-4-3 inning ending double play written all over it – instead it resulted in an E4 and the first run to cross the plate. It was only the second error of the season for STAC-commit Dom Crema – the other one was on a pop up lost in the sun. The next batter was Matt Brandt who laced an RBI single to score Heckelman and make it a 2-0 game.
Chaminade sent ace LHP John Downing to the mound. He is one of the top uncommitted pitchers in the 2022 class and one of the top southpaws on Long Island. The junior worked around a one-out single by Aedan Forde in the first inning to throw up a zero and a leadoff error in the second to keep the Cougars at bay. In the third, though, Kyle Chase led off the inning with a single to right and advanced to third on a single by Aedan Forde. It was great base running by Chase who read the single perfectly and advanced even with the ball in front of him. It paid dividends because Forde was able to advance to second and avoid the double play when the next batter, sophomore Christian Alicea grounded one to second base that scored Chase. The next batter was retired to end the third and keep it a 2-1 game.
From that point on, both pitchers hit their groove. The only trouble Chase got in was in the fourth when he hit Nolan Nawrocki and walked Nick Ungania to put a runner in scoring position but he struck out Thomas Lebrecht to end the jam
Downing set down the side in order in the fifth and it was clear he was going to be given the chance to finish what he started. In the sixth, he allowed a leadoff walk to Forde who moved to second on a soft roller to third by Alicea. Dom Crema struck out on a high fastball for the second out, and Forde was thrown out attempting to steal third by catcher Brian Heckelman to end the jam.
Final: Chaminade 2, SJB 1
WP: John Downing (CG, 4 H, 1 R, 7 K) pic.twitter.com/2MsfbAhgkf— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 7, 2021
Chase walked Brady Steinert in the sixth but avoided any damage by inducing a ground out to second off the bat of Ungania. In the seventh, Joe Reale led off with a single to center and it appeared a sac bunt was in order. Downing – to his credit, kept the ball up which made it more difficult to get the bunt down. With two strikes, the bunt was called off and he wound up striking out Jason Campo for the first out. The next batter, Nick Petrelli hit a tailor-made double play to SS that was converted into a game-ending 6-4-3 twin killing. Chaminade simply made fewer errors in the game and with a pitcher like Downing on the mound, that was all they needed. He wound up striking out 7, allowing just four hits and the one run.
Chaminade (12-4) will now take on Kellenberg (13-3) on Wednesday in Game 1 of a best-of-three series. Kellenberg will host the series as the No. 1 seed. Neither team will have their ace available due to the pitching restrictions, so unless there’s a rain out (a possibility) we won’t see Kellenberg RHP Andrew Koshy or John Downing. The teams squared off just two weeks ago with Chaminade winning two of three.
