St. Joseph’s captures the 2022 Skyline Conference Championship! pic.twitter.com/EkZ9kvSvjR
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 15, 2022
For the third time since 2016, the St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles have captured the Skyline Conference Championship. They did so by taking the long route – losing the first game on Friday before rattling off 4 consecutive victories in elimination games.
Coach Rick Garrett – who has been at the helm for all three of the championships – stated that the message was simple following their 12-10 loss on Friday.
“We said, ‘hey let’s take this one game at a time. Everyone that we face moving forward, it’s either us or them getting eliminated.’ It was just about keeping the pedal down and trying to score every inning. And we almost did that,” he added.
The offense was relentless.
They entered this week with the No. 2 team average in the nation (.371) behind only perennial powerhouse Marietta. They may have overtaken that top spot after their performance the past two days.
Here were the scores of the next four games:
9-1, 8-4, 18-9 and 10-3. Those last two games were in the championship round against a top-tier pitching staff. During those four games they averaged 17.5 hits per game. There was simply no way to stop their attack and it wore down the pitching of the reigning champs, USMMA.
In regards to them, Coach Garrett had the following to say.
“Mike, their head coach, is not only a great coach but a great person. We’ve developed a friendship over the years since they’ve been in the league. His players are fundamentally sound. They do everything they’re supposed to do. When we faced them in 2018 during the rain delay, our players were playing golf in the outfield at Farmingdale. During this weekend, he always had a great rapport with the players in my dugout. You can see their kids are really prepared and you know you’ll have a good game of baseball,” he added.
Today’s game certainly started out sharp and appeared it could be a barn burner, but the bats of St. Joseph’s exploded for 8 runs in the fourth inning and six runs in the fifth inning. Just like that the game was essentially over and the teams needed to mentally prepare for playing the winner-take-all game. To their credit, USMMA did show resiliency the rest of the first game, scoring 9 runs in the final four innings to make it closer than it was. For the Golden Eagles, they were led by a slew of players:
Joe Sanguedolce: 4-for-6, 2 runs
Ryan Decoursey: 3-for-6, 2 runs, 2 RBIs
Phil Krpata: 3-for-6, 2 runs, 3 RBIs
John Lynch: 3-for-6, 3 runs, 5 RBIs
Hermes Abreu: 3-for-4, 2 runs
Brian Forbes: bases clearing double, 4 RBIs
It was an eye-opening performance. And they were able to put enough of a strain on the USMMA bullpen that it was unrealistic to expect them to have enough impact arms for another game. Fortunately for the Golden Eagles, they did not have that same problem.
Coach Garrett called them his ‘unsung heros’ and that’s Anthony Cinquemani (6 innings, 3 ER, 6 Ks) and Kevin Yohe (3 IP, 0 R, 1 K) who combined to fire 9 innings, holding a potent USMMA offense to just three runs and the defense committed no errors.
Once again, the offense struck early and often. In addition to putting up double-digit runs on 15 hits, they also drew 8 walks. Brian Forbes hit another long HR and had three hits. Nick Vicino had three hits and three RBIs, John Lynch, Ryan Decoursey and Joe Sanguedolce all had two hits.
For his efforts, Sanguedolce was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
Next up, the team will gather at the campus on Monday at noon for lunch and to find out where they will be heading for the NCAA Regional. Coach Garrett spoke about the camaraderie of this team, “They are inseparable. Never seen 40 kids that could bond like that. As long as they’re together, there’s nobody they can’t beat.”
Additonally, they will be returning their entire infield and at least 2 of the 3 outfielders. Coach said that the only question is whether catcher Hermes Abreu and Brian Forbes will be back – that they are waiting to hear back about jobs. They will also graduate ace Kevin Czeczotka – who led the team in wins (5), CGs (4), IP (50.2), Ks (51) and ERA (2.66).
Simply put, it’s been an incredible ride for St. Joseph’s. They are the first team since Farmingdale in 2008 to lose the first game of the tournament and still win the tournament. And with their high-octane offense, they are not done yet.
