Pinch runner Charles Rhodes (28) of Notre Dame-WH is tagged out at the plate in the fourth inning by Avon catcher Jeremy Zarwasnki in Tuesday’s Class L semifinal in Middletown.
MIDDLETOWN, June 7 – All it took was a momentary lapse for the No. 11 Notre Dame-West Haven baseball team to earn a spot in the Class L championship game.
Avon’s drive to the finals sputtered in the fourth inning Tuesday at Palmer Field against the Green Knights. The Falcons gave up two walks and committed an error that kept the inning alive.
It helped Notre Dame-West Haven score four runs, which was enough to lift the Green Knights to a 4-3 decision over Avon and into the Class L final for the first time since 2014. The Knights will face East Lyme on Saturday night at Palmer Field.
Avon (13-11), which was seeking their first berth in the championship game since 1968, rapped out 10 singles and continued to battle throughout the contest but fell one run shy. The loss ends a wonderful tournament run for the Falcons, who ended the season with five straight losses and defeats in seven of their final eight regular season games.
In the tournament, No. 23 Avon went on the road to beat No. 10 New London, 7-2 and then eliminated No. 7 Masuk-Monroe, 8-6. They earned a spot in the semifinals with a 7-4 win over defending Class L champion North Haven at Buckingham Field.
“This team is scrappy. They just don’t give up,” Avon head coach Jon Yolles said. “The one thing we hung our hat on this year is that we basically played a (Class) LL schedule (in the regular season).”
Ten of Avon’s 20 games this season came against schools in Class LL and seven of the eight Class LL teams that Avon played qualified for the state tournament.
“We just felt like it was our time,” Avon first baseman Sean Del Gallo said. “We were 10-10 (in the regular season) but we played one of the toughest schedules in the state. We got into the tournament and we started rolling. It was something special.”
Avon first baseman Sean Del Gallo was 3-for-4 in Tuesday’s Class L semifinal loss to Notre Dame-WH.
Notre Dame brought a sense of grit to the table as well. The Green Knights were 6-8 at one point this season. They’ve won 12 of their last 13 games. The only loss came to No. 1 Amity in the Southern Connecticut Conference championship game.
“This is what we did all year,” Notre Dame coach Don Martone said. “We stayed together and grinded out ballgames one pitch at a time.”
Avon took a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Chris Jacobs led off the inning with a single and moved to second on Brendan Dyer’s single to right field. Both men moved up a base on a successful sacrifice bunt by Ian McDonald. Jacobs was thrown out at the plate on an attempted suicide squeeze bunt that Avon’s Justin Olson sent up the third base line. But Del Gallo (3-for-4) gave Avon the lead with a RBI single to right field.
Avon’s starting pitcher Will Boone did well for three innings, allowing just two hits and striking out two. But in the fourth, he stumbled. With one out, Notre Dame pitcher Dylan Reynolds singled to left field. Boone walked the next two batters to load the bases.
Yolles brought in reliever Kyle Emery. It was similar to a situation that Emery faced in the win over Masuk. Emery got Tyler Pyne to hit a ground ball down the line to third baseman Brendan Dyer but the throw home for the force play and the out was wide.
Only one run scored because Emery backed up the play at home but it energized the Knights. Mike Dziczmowski ripped a double down the left field line that cleared the bases and allowed Notre Dame’s lead to swell to 4-1.
But just as quickly, Avon looked to stem the tide. Notre Dame’s Mike Martinello hit a double down the right field line. Outfielder Jack Stokesbury dove for the ball and missed. But he quickly scrambled to his feet and fired it to Del Gallo, who sent it home to catcher Jeremy Zarwanski and tag out pinch runner Charles Rhodes who was trying to score from second base.
Avon cut the lead to two, 4-2, in the sixth inning. Del Gallo singled with one out and moved to second on a ground ball out by Zarwanski. Del Gallo scored on Andrew LeDuc’s RBI single to center field. Leduc was 2-for-4 on the day.
The Falcons threatened in the seventh. Matt Boone led off the inning with a single to right field and moved to second base on Dyer’s one-out single to center field. Boone cut Notre Dame’s lead to one, 4-3, scoring from second base on Olson’s two-out single to center field.
But reliever Mike Sansone got Del Gallo to hit a long fly ball to right field to secure the win.
Avon has five seniors on the team but Yolles hopes this tournament run will be another building block in the foundation that the team is building. “They didn’t want it to end,” he said. “They practiced hard. They had a lot of fun and good things happened.”
Notre Dame-WH 4, Avon 3
At Middletown
Avon (13-11) 001 001 1 – 3-10-2
ND-WH (18-9) 000 400 x – 4-6-0
Will Boone, Kyle Emery (4), Matt Boone (6) and Jeremy Zarwanski; Dylan Reynolds, Mike Sansone (7) and Matt Martinello; WP: Reynolds; LP: Emery (1-4); Sv: Sansone; 2B: Mike Dziczkowski (N), Matt Martinello (N)
You must be logged in to post a comment Login