By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Unlike earlier in the week, the Greece Athena baseball team didn’t need a walk-off to win on Friday. The Trojans scored twice in the top of the first, and starting pitcher Vic Alongi made sure that was enough.
Alongi allowed one run on six hits in a complete-game effort as Athena defeated Irondequoit, 4-1.
“That felt really good,” the senior right-hander said after his second complete-game effort of the season. “Everything was great. It was really good all around.”
He left runners on base in the first, third and fourth innings but was at his best in the latter stages of the game. With temperatures hovering in the low to mid-80s (the warmest day yet of the season), Alongi retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced.
VIEW MORE SCOTT CORDARO PHOTOS HERE.
“He’s that prototypical bulldog,” Athena head coach Jason Bunting said. “He is a bulldog. He grinds it out. He won’t let you take him out of the game. He wants the baseball.”
Of the final six batters faced, only one got the ball out of the infield and that was a routine fly ball to center. He held an Irondequoit team which averaged 6.6 runs over its first eight games to its second lowest run output of the season.
“Today I wasn’t really feeling my curveball,” he explained. “I started throwing my changeup, and it was on. I was throwing that more toward the end. That’s why I was probably able to be more effective.
“I’m also throwing this two-seam fastball that kinda cuts in. That was working really too, so I was trying to mix those in. Mixing that in just to keep them off-balance.”
Athena’s defense had its starter’s back when needed.
Jaden Madrid and Casey Saucke II turned a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play to help Alongi escape runners on the corners in the first. Center fielder Donovan Wallace threw a runner at the plate in the fourth, and Madrid took away a base hit when he went to his backhand in the hole between and first and second for the first out of the sixth.
“They played amazing today,” Alongi said of his teammates. “That was definitely our best defense of the season. 100 percent.”
Saucke made the final three plays of the game getting a pair of ground outs before fielding infield pop-up for the last out in the seventh.
“He had the whole game in his hands,” the senior shortstop said of his teammate. “He went at his pace. He kept them at one run and pitched a great game. That’s the reason we won. He had control of the game, and he dominated for sure.”
Madrid led the game with a base hit. The sophomore second baseman stole second and third before coming home on an errant throw. Athena had a lead it did not surrender.
Alongi followed with a one-out single and moved to third on an Aleks Englert double down the third-base line. A wild pitch brought home the second run of the inning.
TJ Kurtz singled and scored on a Dylan Bliss RBI ground out in the fourth. The Trojans added a run in the fifth when Saucke and Alongi worked a double steal with Saucke coming home when the throw to get him at third sailed down the left field line.
It doesn’t take an expert in box score analysis to figure out the Athena attack. The Trojans collected seven hits on the day while stealing eight bases. That number is not unlike their previous games. Madrid leads the way with 14 thefts. Saucke has 11, and the Trojans have swiped 35 bags in all this season.
“It starts with Jaden,” Bunting said of his squad’s abilities on the basepaths. “The top of our lineup can run. Those guys are walking triples. If you put them on, they can be at third base in two pitches a lot of times. Irondequoit has a very good catcher with a good arm, but those guys are fast and they get good jumps. Sometimes there’s no defense for that.”
“The top of our order has some pretty amazing speed,” Saucke said. “Coach Bunting lets us play. We’re all good baseball players. We all know that. He just lets it shine on the field.”
Athena scored two runs in the bottom of the 10th to hand Irondequoit its first loss of the season on Tuesday.
Joe Wintermute matched Alongi with seven innings on the mound. The right-hander struck out eight.
Connor Gresens and Brian Tisa connected on back-to-back one-out singles in the fourth. Gresens came around to score on an error. Nick Calarco and Brody Froman collected a single apiece for the Eagles.
Athena (8-1) hosts Gates-Chili on Saturday.
Irondequoit (7-3) hosts Aquinas also on Saturday.
Leave a Reply