Falcigno Pitches Well in First Game Against Stratford

Making his first Zone 2 start on the last day of the regular season, Orange Post 127 right-hander Steve Falcigno tossed a gritty 2-0 4-hitter at Stratford PAL on Saturday morning at Penders Field in Stratford. 

In his 6 1/3 inning effort, the rising Hopkins senior struck out 6, hit 3 but did not walk a batter. When Coach Bob Mirto felt that Falcigno had begun to wilt in the heat and humidity, he brought in Dane Simone to retire the last 2 Stratford batters and save Falcigno’s shut out victory.

“That was a gutsy, courageous performance by Steve. He proved that he knows how to pitch and is a real pitcher.  He probed the Stratford batters, picked out their deficiencies, and then exploited them,” Mirto said. “During the off-season he needs to get into the gym and build up strength in his legs so he can pick up a few miles per hour on his fast ball. I thought he pitched a great game today. He may not blow batters away with his velocity but he uses his head, changed speeds, hits his spots, and uses his curve ball very effectively. On top of all that, he doesn’t rattle with runners on base.”

With this effort, Falcigno will obviously loom large in Mitro’s pitching plans for the 2012 season.

Post 127 scored its first run without benefit of a base hit. Stratford pitcher Steve Petrahai started the top of  the second inning by walking both Grayson Amoroso and Sean Butler. Nial Demondo’s sacrifice bunt moved both runners up a base and Amoroso scored on Jack Lubin’s sacrifice fly to right filed.

Despite being behind 1-0 Petrahai had a no hitter until speedy Brian Kernan started the top of the sixth by legging out an infield hit. After stealing second base, he raced over to third on a wild pitch. Seeing that PAL catcher Carl Russo was chasing down the wild pitch and Petrahai had not come in to cover home plate, Kernan kept running and slid home with his team’s second run.

“That was our second most exciting play of the summer,” Mirto said. “The most exciting play was Brian stealing home against West Haven.”

With he ended up with a shut out, Falcigno had runners on base in all but the second inning. In the fourth, he had runners on first and second with only one out but dodged that bullet by whiffed both Ryan Mucherino and Mike Tecci. An inning later, Alex Tyler slashed a lead-off double down the left field line and Russo followed with a 1-out single, but Falcigno got DeCapua and Jordan Weiss on inning-ending infield pop ups. After Falcigno hit Ryan Soski with a pitch to start the bottom of the sixth, Kernan chased down  but then dropped Brandon Sheehan’s fly ball to center field. With tying runs on base and the potential go-ahead run at bat, Falcigno froze them in place by setting down the next 3 Stratford batters.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, he nicked Russo with a pitch. At that point, Mirto brought in Simone, who quickly retired pinch hitter Nick DiIulio and Weiss to pick up save by preserving Falcigno’s shutout victory.

According to Falcigno, “I threw mostly 2 seam fast balls and some curve balls too. I didn’t have any walks today but don’t usually walk many batters. I had been sick earlier in the week and felt a little weak in the first couple of innings but by the end of the game, I felt much better. This was a good effort by everyone. The defense was good. We got the job done even if we didn’t end up with many hits.”

While pleased with his team’s shutout victory, which raised its record to 9-14, Mirto was clearly not pleased with his team’s offense. “We got a great pitching performance by Steve and we played good defense, but we took awful swings. Their kid was constantly throwing the ball outside. Instead of going with the pitch and taking it the opposition way, we were constantly lunging at the ball, trying to pull it. Our at bats were really lousy today.”

Weiss had 2 of his team’s four hits.

While Stratford lost this contest, it bounced back to take the second game of the morning twin bill, 7-3 and ends its season with a 4-20 record. Post 127 cashed out at 9-15.