Sports
Baseball: Wilton falls in nine innings

May 8, 2008

After a listless 5-0 loss to St. Joseph, the Wilton High baseball team erupted for 25 runs in victories over Trinity Catholic and Bridgeport Central, only to lose an extra-inning 3-2 thriller against Ridgefield on Tuesday.

That loss left the Warriors at 7-7 overall (7-6 FCIAC) and one win short of qualifying for the state tournament.

Fresh from a convincing victory less than 24 hours earlier against Central, Wilton faced powerful Ridgefield (12-3) on Tuesday. Austin Gambee (2-1) took the mound for the Warriors and for eight innings battled the Tigers even at 2-2.

But in the ninth, Gambee opened the inning by hitting Andrew Rebhorn with a pitch. Spencer Judge sacrificed pinch runner Jim O’Dea to second and a wild pitch advanced the runner to third. Jay Lavardera hoisted a sacrifice fly to right that drove in the run, with Lavardera winding up at second when the ball was dropped. Darren Amelio came in to get the final two outs, limiting the damage to a run.

Ridgefield had scored its first runs in the second inning. Sean O’Dea led off with a double and Zach Shea walked. Gambee then balked both runners but got Oliver Chase on a pop-up. Judge lashed a ball to first base that got through for a two-run error.

Gambee fought through the third and fourth innings, stranding four baserunners. He kept getting stronger, and it was clear sailing into the ninth. He gave up just four hits and three runs (one earned) in his eight and one-third innings of work.

Meanwhile, Tiger pitcher Sam Robertson held Wilton hitless through four innings. Casey O’Brien ended that streak emphatically as he crashed a monstrous triple over the rightfielder’s head. Brian Tangney’s ground ball to the right side drove in O’Brien.

Ryan Phillips led off the sixth with a base hit up the middle, and Bashar Nabulsi doubled to center. Phillips, trying to score from first, was cut down on a close relay play at the plate. But Steve Marino’s base hit to center drove in Nabulsi, and when Marino stole second and went to third on O’Brien’s infield hit, the Warriors looked to go ahead. But Robertson hung tough and got a groundout to end the inning.

Wilton had chances to win from the seventh inning on. In the ninth inning, Aaron Shapiro reached on an error, stole second and, with one out, raced to third when a routine fly ball to short center field was dropped. With runners at the corners and only one out, Phillips rapped sharply to second base for a game-ending double play, though the out call at first was, at best, iffy.

“Baseball can be a cruel, cruel game,” said Wilton head coach, Tim Eagen. “Ryan Phillips did exactly what he was supposed to do — find a pitch and drive it. That’s what he did, right to the guy at second base and he starts a double play. Yesterday, we were getting big, two-out hits all over the place. Today, from the fifth inning on, we couldn’t buy one. That’s a good team, maybe an FCIAC championship team. I’m proud of the way our guys battled, especially Austin Gambee today. Our team has come a long way.”

On Monday, the Warriors continued their offensive surge by pounding out 15 hits in a 13-5 victory over Bridgeport Central at Wilton’s Varsity Field.

Starter Kurt Marut (3-4) was the beneficiary of Wilton’s heavy hitting. He pitched six strong innings, allowing only two hits and two runs — none earned — with eight strikeouts and one walk. Amelio finished up, allowing three unearned runs in an inning of work.   
                 
For Wilton, it was one of those rare instances when a team could get away with a sloppy defensive effort. All five Hilltopper runs were unearned due to seven Warrior errors, four in Central’s final at-bat. Thankfully, the game was out of reach.

But focus on the Warrior offense. It overcame everything. There were 10 two-out base hits yielding six two-out runs. All four of Jared Wyman’s base hits came with two outs and three of his singles accounted for a run each. Phillips had a pair of two-out hits and RBIs and Sam Fuentes had one of each.

Wilton’s five-run second inning was classic clutch hitting. Central starter Brian Perez (2-2) got the first two outs, and Tangney’s dribbled base hit up the third base line augured nothing special. But Shapiro walked and Fuentes singled in a run. Marino blasted an infield hit off the pitcher’s mound to load the bases and Phillips hammered a two-run double to center. Marino then came home on a wild pitch and Wyman singled in Phillips for a 7-1 lead.

Last Thursday, the Warriors avoided becoming a cautionary tale by escaping from Mickey Lione Field with a 12-7 extra-inning win over Trinity Catholic.

Wilton had built a 6-3 lead going into Trinity’s last at-bat. But a leadoff single by Alex Santos, a wild pitch and an error put runners at first and third and brought Amelio (1-1) in to relieve starter Gambee. A walk to Mike Scaturchio loaded the bases and a groundout by Jamie Antonetti brought in a run and left runners in scoring position. Ryan Walsh delivered a two-run single to left tying the game, still with only one out in the inning. A runner interference-aided double play fortuitously ended the Crusader rally.

In the Wilton ninth, Crusader reliever Chris Spadara hit Nabulsi with a pitch to open the inning. Successive errors, including a bobble of Matt Baird’s sacrifice bunt, loaded the bases. O’Brien singled through the drawn-in infield for one run, and Shapiro got hit by a pitch to bring in another. Singles by Fuentes and Phillips accounted for two more runs and Wyman’s blast to third base that caromed into the outfield brought in Wilton’s final two runs to make the score 12-6.

Amelio got two quick outs but Trinity Catholic, as always, wasn’t finished. Two base hits and an error gave the Crusaders a run and put them on the comeback trail. But a fly ball to Chris Judge in center field ended the threat and the game.

“There was some ugly baseball but it was a good win for us,” said Eagen. “Austin Gambee fought out there and the rest of the team did, too. After Trinity tied the score and we went into extra innings, we could have folded and lost the game. But we didn’t. We did a lot of little things right and we got clutch hits.”

Wyman led the 16-hit attack with four hits and four runs batted in while Phillips had three hits and two RBIs. Judge, O’Brien, and Shapiro had two hits each while Judge, Baird and Wyman doubled and O’Brien tripled.

Against St. Joseph last Wednesday starting pitcher Marut only gave up two earned runs, but even that didn’t matter much. Offensively, Wilton could gain no traction, could not string hits together, could not break through with a two-out base hit to score any runs at all.

The result was a complete game 5-0 whitewash served up by Cadet righthander Jim Dimon, who limited Wilton to five hits while striking out six and walking two.

The Warriors’ best chance came in the fourth when Fuentes reached on an error at shortstop, moved to second on Phillips’ single up the middle and went to third on a walk to Nabulsi that loaded the bases. Chris Judge, back from an injury, lashed a pitch that looked to clear the first baseman’s head but was knocked down instead for an easy third out. The ball was hit squarely and with tremendous force but right at the fielder.


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