For the first time since 1998, Queens College is the ECC Champs! They win it 9-8 in 10 innings on a walk-off pic.twitter.com/6qeecjEjAD
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 13, 2023
Despite losing on Friday and facing elimination, Queens College was able to rattle of three straight wins – including two against the two-time defending ECC Champs, Molloy, and winning their first Conference Championship in 25 years.
It was a remarkable day of baseball for everyone that stuck around for both games – which includes 19 innings of baseballs and more runs than you can count. The level of difficulty for Queens College entering today was incredibly high – as they were not only entering the day fatigued from the previous two days, but they needed to face one of the best pitchers in the conference (Brian Morrisey) in Game 1 and hold down one of the best Division-II offenses in the nation, but they would need to win just to force a winner-take-all game.
Game 1 was scoreless through 3 innings of play before the Queens’ bats exploded for 10 runs between the fourth and sixth innings. SS Andrew Ramirez got them on the board with an RBI double and catcher Nick Barreiros followed with a 3-R HR to left to make it a 4-0 lead. In the sixth inning, Matt Filip hit an RBI single to make it 5-0, Marc Cisco reached on a fielder’s choice to make it 6-0 and Jorsixt Jimenez broke it open with a 3-R bomb of his own to make it 9-0. Anthony Fontana followed with a solo shot to make it 10-0.
Molloy’s offense came to life in the sixth inning, they posted five runs to make it a ballgame with Anthony Manisero’s single + two-base error with the bases loaded resulting in three uruns crossing the plate.
That was as close as they’d get, though, and Queens held on by the score of 11-7. Johnnie Rodopolous earned the win, going five innings, allowing 4 ER, with 4 walks and 0 strikeouts. Dean Fazah, Steve Castro and Danny Gargano combined to close out the last four innings.
Game 2 began around 3:25 and Queens wasted zero time getting on the board.
Jorsixt Jimenez drove home Jayson Rodopolous with an RBI single. Jimenez has been brilliant all season for the Knights. The freshman has 53 RBIs in 50 games with a strong 1.042 OPS. He formed a dynamic middle of the order along with Marc Cisco – the reigning Axcess College Player of the Year (1.055 OPS, 58 runs scored), and Anthony Fontana (1.150 OPS, 53 RBIs). Additionally, they lost SS Francis Segarra to an injury roughly a month ago when he had a .996 OPS over 27 games.
That brought up Fontana. The lefty slugger crushed a three-run blast to extend the lead to 4-0, but the Knights weren’t done yet. They added two more runs on RBI ground outs by Teovaldo Estevez and Colin Diez to make it 6-0. It knocked out Molloy starter Sean Welsh, and also made it appear the game would be out of reach.
To their credit, they did not concede this game at all. Molloy called on southpaw Robert Lucano – he was outstanding in relief. He wound up holding the fort, going 5 innings, allowing two runs on five hits with one strikeout against the potent Queens lineup.
Queens called on Jordan Sanabria to start this game. He also started on Friday and threw four innings. It was a commendable job by Sanabria who fired four strong innings before clearly hitting a wall in the fifth.
Garrett Scavelli, the ECC Player of the Year, hit a solo shot in the third inning to make it a 6-1 ballgame. When he came up again, Molloy had already nearly erased the deficit after a wild pitch scored Matt Yip, JJ Devito drove in a run with an RBI ground out, Jacob McCarthy hit an RBI single and Aidan Larkin scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-5. Scavelli came up with two runners on and two outs and he lined a clutch, two-run triple to not only erase the lead but give Molloy a 6-5 lead. They also added another run on an RBI infield single by Aidan Larkin to make it 7-5.
If you thought this one was over, you were wrong.
Queens immediately got one back on a sac fly with the bases loaded off the bat of Anthony Fontana, although Molloy had to feel fortunate that only one run scored with the bases loaded, 1 out and the middle of the order due up.
Neither team scored in the seventh, but in the eighth inning it was that man Anthony Fontana again. He crushed a long, solo HR to tie the game back up at 8-8. It was his second HR of thhe game and his third of the day.
Chris Naronis, who entered in the fifth inning, was still in the game for Queens. He fired a 1-2-3 ninth inning to give Queens a chance to walk-off. In the home half of the inning, Nick Barreiros singled to left and Molloy called upon their ace and ECC Pitcher of the Year, Charlie Cucchiara. He got the next two batters out, on a ground out and a short pop up to second base to end the inning.
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 13, 2023
Molloy went down 1-2-3 in the 10th again which brought Cucchiara back to the mound. After Marc Cisco was retired, Jimenez stayed red-hot with a double down the right field line. Molloy made the no-brainer decision to intentionally walk Fontana. That brought up Juan De La Rosa. It appeared that he was about to escape with a 4-6-3 double play but the throw to first was errant and allowed Jimenez to score the winning run and send the Queens faithful into a frenzy.
It was a remarkable day of baseball and it’s a shame that someone had to lose. Queens receives the automatic bid to the NCAA Division-II East Regional while Molloy will likely receive an at-large bid thanks to their 36 win season.
Fontana was named Most Outstanding Player of the ECC Tournament – no surprise at all. The Wantagh grad who was a three-time Long Island Champ also was on Hofstra’s 2022 CAA Championship winning team and can now add another title to his sterling resume.
Anthony Fontana hit 3 home runs today and drove in 5 RBIs in the championship game as Queens captured the 2023 @ECCSports championship pic.twitter.com/eIOB5IQtHs
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 13, 2023
