PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Taconic ninth-grader Quentin Christopher delivered a big inning on the mound when his team needed it.
Taconic senior Matt Lee delivered an RBI single to drive Christopher home to earn a 3-2, nine-inning win over Pope Francis on Wednesday.
On a day when hits were hard to come by for either team, Lee hit his second of the day with one out and Christopher on third base to give the Thunder a walkoff win that avenged its only loss of the season.
“Everything was going wrong,” Lee said. “Our defense, everything. We finally got it together.
“I was just looking for something to hit, whatever that was. I knew he was going to go slider, probably, first pitch, and then eventually give me a fastball once he got behind.”
The winning rally started when Christopher worked a walk in the leadoff spot.
An errant pickoff attempt allowed him to go to second, and Gavin O’Donnell laid down a sacrifice bunt to get Christopher to third.
Lee did the rest, driving in his 10th run of the season and giving Taconic an 11-1 record. The one in that mark came at Pope Francis, which went into Wednesday’s game as the seventh-ranked team in Division 2 baseball statewide.
Taconic is the top-ranked team in Division 3, but that position looked to be in jeopardy after the Cardinals plated their first two batters to start the game.
Jacob Petrin led off the game by reaching on a two-base error and came home when Ryan O’Leary’s pop fly fell between two Taconic defenders in the outfield. He then stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on Joe DiMichele’s sacrifice bunt to make it 2-0.
“When we played down there the first time, basically, we gave them five runs there also,” Taconic coach Kevin Stannard said of Wednesday’s rough start. “We’re thinking to ourselves, ‘Oh, no, not another game like that.’ But some resilience, and fortunately they returned the favor and gave us two back.
“From there on, it was a struggle for both teams to push across some runs.”
Taconic starter Evan Blake shook off the ugly first and allowed just four hits the rest of the way – five hits total in eight innings of work while striking out six to keep his ERA at 0.00 over 19-? innings this spring.
His offense scratched out a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to get him off the hook.
Lee and Christian Salzarulo got things started with back-to-back singles. After a wild pitch moved both into scoring position, Pope Francis starter Connor Niemiec (six strikeouts, one walk) retired the next two hitters.
But Nick Guachione knocked a ball down the third base line that the Cards’ left fielder could not come up with, and Lee and Salzarulo came home to tie the game.
Each team had chances to break that tie in regulation.
In the fifth, Blake crushed a ball to the warning track in left-center. In the sixth, Guachione hit a shot to right that Pope Francis’ Johnny Gosselin grabbed above the fence line to deny a sure homer.
Pope Francis’ offense had runners on base every inning from the third through the seventh.
In the fourth, Pope Francis’ DiMichele led off with a single and stole second, but he was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Eddie Ferris on Cameron Vedovelli’s single in a play that the Cardinals’ bench disputed.
The Cards got two men in scoring position in the top of sixth, but Blake got a strikeout, a popup and a grounder to Christopher at second to end the threat.
In the top of the seventh, Pope Francis had runners at first and second with two out before Blake ended the rally with a called third strike.
After he threw his 104th pitch to end the top of the eighth, Stannard moved Christopher to the mound.
“[Christopher is] a freshman, but he’s been playing really well for us out in the field,” Stannard said. “And he threw the other day, so at least we had gotten his feet wet on Monday.”
Christopher started the top of the ninth with a fly ball, but Gosselin singled to right. He was swapped out with a runner who reached on a fielder’s choice. Petrin then drew his second walk of the game to move the go-ahead run into scoring position.
Christopher clamped down and picked up the second strikeout of his varsity career at a big moment, ending the top of the ninth and getting Taconic back in the dugout for the winning rally.
During the inning, a difficult day between Pope Francis’ coaching staff and the umpiring crew came to a head with the ejection of the Cardinals skipper Daniel Fenton.
“I was all fired up from the coach being thrown out, and my team was behind me firing me up,” Christopher said. “I just went out, mixed my pitches well. I hit my spots and got it done. I couldn’t have gotten it done without [catcher Antonio Scalise].”
Taconic takes an eight-game winning streak into Thursday’s home game against Pittsfield (8-3), currently 10th in the commonwealth in Division 3.
