May 15, 2008
Baseball: Warriors clinch state berth but miss FCIAC spot
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Talk about symmetry.
Just three days after a 3-2 victory over Fairfield Warde last Saturday clinched a spot in the state tournament for the Wilton High baseball team, a 3-2 loss to Westhill on Tuesday ended the Warriors’ pursuit of a berth in the FCIAC playoffs.
With the score tied 2-2 and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, Westhill’s Steve Rivera hit a grounder to the mound that glanced off Wilton pitcher Austin Gambee. Gambee picked up the ball, but his throw home was not in time to beat Sean Moynihan.
Wilton took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Aaron Shapiro singled and Jared Wyman doubled to put runners on second and third. Ryan Phillips’ groundout scored the first run, and the second came home on Bashar Nabulsi’s infield single.
But Westhill answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning, and the score stayed tied until Westhill’s decisive run in the bottom of the seventh.
Gambee pitched a complete game for Wilton, holding Westhill to three hits while walking eight (two intentionally) and striking out three.
Westhill’s T.J. Hickey allowed five hits, walked one and struck out six in the complete-game victory.
Against Warde on Saturday, it was defense that got Wilton into trouble and defense that rescued it as the Warriors hung on for a 3-2 triumph at home, clinching a state tourney berth.
Kurt Marut (4-4) pitched a complete game, yielding two runs, one earned, on seven hits, walking two and striking out three.
“To win the game that puts us into the states is big for Kurt,” said pitching coach Mark Ketley. “He didn’t have his best stuff and battled throughout the game. It was a big win for us.”
Marut’s status looked a good deal less rosy during a Warde (6-11, 5-10) uprising in the seventh. Mike Zeman, after singling to right to start the inning, raced to third on an infield error. With no outs and runners at the corners, shortstop Nabulsi fielded a ground ball behind second base, raced to the bag, tagged it and threw on to first, where Casey O’Brien’s grade A scoop completed a stunning double play. Though Zeman scored, leaving the Mustangs trailing by only a run, the bases were now empty. A good thing, too because the next batter, Kyle Burns, bounced a seeing-eye base hit up the middle. Marut then got Joe Krahe to ground a ball slowly toward short. It was Jared Wyman’s turn to shine as the Warrior third baseman raced to his left, cut the ball off and fired a bullseye to first, getting Krahe by a step and giving Wilton a trip to the post-season.
“We never make it easy on ourselves,” said head coach Tim Eagen, a common refrain, as his team is 3-3 in one-run games. “Bashar and Jared made all the plays today. The left side of our infield was like a wall. No errors and they fielded everything that came their way.”
Wilton scored a run in its opening at-bat on a two-out RBI single by Phillips. The Warriors went on to load the bases but Warde hurler John Bock (1-3) got off the hook with a pop-up to first base.
In the fourth, Wilton was able to push across the runs that would mean victory. O’Brien led off with a base hit to right and Steve Marino bunted him over to second. Matt Baird singled to put runners at first and third for Shapiro, who lifted a fly ball base hit to right, scoring O’Brien. Sam Fuentes’ sacrifice fly to deep right drove in Baird with what proved to be the winning run.
Warde had tied the game at 1-1 back in the third inning. Ralph Fidaleo singled with one out, moved to second on a passed ball and then rode home on a Marc Moreno base hit.
“Kurt Marut hung in there and we found a way to win,” said Eagen. “We’re a young team and it’s good to see our guys reach our first goal which is always to get to the states. It took us four innings to change our approach to hitting, but we did that and we did enough to win.”
Wilton was coming off a 6-2 loss to McMahon last Wednesday.
McMahon ace Rocco Cundari pitched a four-hitter, giving up two runs (one earned), striking out eight and not walking a batter.
Todd Lyons was a thorn in the Warriors’ side as he went 3-for-4, scored twice and knocked in two critical runs with a two-out, bases-loaded bloop single to left in the fourth. It pushed the Senators’ lead to 4-1 and Cundari needed no more insurance. He got some, however, in the sixth when a two-out, two-run error on a routine fly ball pushed McMahon’s lead to 6-2.
Wilton had picked up a run on a pair of infield singles by Shapiro and Wyman with Shapiro scoring on Phillips’ ground ball to second base. The Warriors got their other run in the first inning as Shapiro reached on an error, moved to second on a passed ball and came home on Wyman’s single to right field.
For five and two-third innings, Wilton pitcher Adam Pratson (0-1) hung in tenaciously. He matched Cundari with eight strikeouts but struggled with his control. He walked seven batters, one intentionally, and hit a batter. And yet it was defense that hurt him as only two of the six runs charged to him were earned.
But he did struggle as he never retired the side in order and McMahon left runners on base in every inning. The pressure was on the Warrior defense and when it cracked, Wilton had to pay. The fact that Pratson battled as he did was reason for optimism on Eagen’s part.
“Overall, we knew it would be a low-scoring game with Cundari throwing for them,” said Eagen. “We needed to hit in the clutch but I think today we were a little overmatched. Adam Pratson deserves another crack in the rotation off of what he did today. His problem was that he had a strikeout-walk, strikeout-walk pattern and McMahon made him pay.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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