By Peter DiGiovanni
pdgiovanni07@gmail.com
WEST CHESTER — Pitching was at a premium Wednesday night at Hoopes Park as the Red Men held off the Barnstormers, 2-0, in a West Chester Adult Baseball League contest. The game was called in the top of the seventh inning due to darkness.
The Red Men (5-1) starting pitcher, Dom Williams, a St. Peter’s University product, pitched 4 1/3 stellar innings before giving way to Grayson Kovach with two men on in the fifth inning. Williams allowed the Barnstormers (1-5) just one hit while striking out six batters.
“Everything was working well for me tonight,” Williams said. “The fastball, slider and my sinker were all working well and I was able to throw them all for strikes. And we got a run in the second inning and that was good because we have been playing from behind a lot so far this season.”
The Red Men run came against John Vogel, who went six superb innings for the Barnstormers and allowed just four hits while striking out nine Red Men batters.
Matt Diottavio led off the second inning with a double for the Red Men. Kovach came up and reached base on a fielder’s choice with Diottavio being called out at third base.
Kovach stole second, then Tyler Harris reached base on an error with Kovach moving to third. Two pitches later, Kovach scored on a wild pitch and the Red Men had an early 1-0 lead.
“It was very important to get an early run and get the lead,” Red Men assistant coach Ryan Howe said. “And our pitching was real good. Dom was really on and then Grayson Kovach came in and got out of a couple of jams and we were able to get the win.”
The two jams that Kovach got the Red Men out of came in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings. The Barnstormers had two men on with one out in the bottom of the fifth and Kovach came in and struck out the next two Barnstormers.
Then, the Barnstormers tried to rally again in the bottom of the sixth inning. Kovach walked the lead off man, Evan Sareyka, to start the inning. Clay Cormiglia hit a hot shot to shortstop that Landon Rozich fielded but his throw to second base went into short right field and Sareyka headed to third base to put two men on with no outs.
Kovach, relying on his fastball, struck out the next three Barnstormers and the Red Men maintained their 1-0 lead. The Barnstormers stranded seven runners for the game.
The Red Men offense woke up in the top of the seventh against Barnstormers reliever Brad Warmhold. Sean Regenye led off the inning and reached first base on an infield error. Rozich came up and poled a long ringing double to the base of the left center field fence, scoring Regenye and the Red Men had a 2-0 lead.
At that point the umpires called the game and it was an official win for the Red Men.
“I hit what looked like a lob pitch,” Rozich said. “We wanted to get an insurance run and that is what we did. They did not get to bat anyway because of the darkness but we knew we had to get another run.”
Red Men 2, Barnstormers 0
Red Men 010 000 1 – 2
Barnstormers 000 000 0 – 0
WP – Williams. LP – Vogel.
2B – Red Men – Diottavio, Rozich. Barnstomers – Barthmeir.
Source: Berkshire mont
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