By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Roughly eight miles separate Eastridge and Greece Arcadia. Traveling the roads between those two Monroe County high schools early Friday afternoon, the Churchville-Chili baseball team lost its edge only to find it in time for an unconventional doubleheader sweep.
Justin Meister scored the go-ahead run in a four-run third and tossed 4.2 innings as the Saints rallied to beat host Arcadia, 8-5.
“Came out here and were a little flat to start,” Saints’ head coach Guy Puglia said. “But we got it done.”
Trailing 3-1, Zach Miner, Josh Campbell and Cooper Romich connected on back-to-back-to-back singles to cue the Saints’ march.
“All season long, we’ve been struggling with the bases loaded, guys in scoring position and not getting that big hit to break it open,” Puglia noted. “We saw a little of it there. We’re hoping that changes down the road.”
Meister followed with his two-bagger. C-C sent 10 to the plate and had a lead it did not surrender at 5-3.
“We didn’t play our best baseball, and we came back and gave it to them,” Puglia said.
Meister struck out three. He allowed three runs on five hits and a walk in the first inning. From there, the junior right-hander retired six of seven batters faced at one point and did not allow more than one baserunner aboard at a time.
Justin Meister strands a runner on third. Heading to the 5th: @cccsdbaseball 5 @TitanBaseball 3 pic.twitter.com/2e26FKHtk7
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) April 22, 2022
“He had that really rough first inning, but he settled down,” Puglia said. “Got hit with a line drive. We thought he was going to come out of the game. He showed some toughness. That was big.”
Dom Morsch worked two and a third for the save. The junior right-hander came on with bases loaded, two outs and set down the first batter he faced on strikes. He surrendered a walk and a double to start the seventh before fanning two more and getting the final batter of the game on a ground ball.
“He goes out there and does his job,” Puglia said. “He didn’t even get a chance to warm up. We put him in from right field. Nothing seems to faze him. He’s a great kid. He’s solid at the end. Hopefully, he can keep going with it.”
Good bite on the Dom Morsch breaking ball. pic.twitter.com/rvJBtDN91g
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) April 22, 2022
Danny Derleth led the offense going 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Jaylen Lopez went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Miner was 2-for-5 with an RBI and run scored. Anthony Shortino had an RBI and a run scored. Evan Putney also crossed home.
Arcadia’s Aaron Ford finished 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles. The senior scored the third run of the Titans’ first inning. Tyler Reichert started the game with a single. One out later, Parker Drees connected on a base hit before Ford kept the Arcadia offense moving.
Dom Zona and Jacob Tsymbal also singled in the inning. Zona reached base three times in the game collecting a pair of walks. Tsymbal was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.
Reichert and Drees also scored in the first. Robert Walter and Aidan Candelaria crossed home for the Titans later in the game.
Aaron Ford puts runners on second and third with two outs. pic.twitter.com/ytgCuvloyT
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) April 22, 2022
The win was the sixth straight for Churchville (9-1).
The Saints took advantage of the last day of spring break to schedule a doubleheader against two different opponents.
Michael Sardou doubled, went 2-for-2 with two walks, an RBI and four runs scored to lead C-C past Eastridge, 10-0.
Evan Putney went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored. Shortino doubled, walked and scored twice. Romich, Meister and Derleth scored a run apiece.
Derleth struck out seven and allowed a hit and walk over four innings for the win. Sardou fanned a pair of two hitless frames of relief and Campbell hurled a scoreless inning with two strike outs.
Eastridge’s Brennen Russo collected two hits in the loss.
Leave a Reply