Over the years statistics show that it been very difficult for one sports team to defeat another three times in the same. Earlier this season Foran had twice defeated the Amity baseball teams by scores of 5-3 and 1-0. The same two teams met again Wednesday night for the third time. This time the two Southern Connecticut Conference rivals met in the quarter-finals of the SCC playoffs at Quigley Stadium in West Haven.
For the first four innings, the Spartans’ Mike Concato and his Lion counterpart, Christian Malave were locked in a scoreless pitching duet between two sophomore hurlers. Finally in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Spartans erupted and pushed home four runs. With its 4-0 victory, Amity avoided a three-game sweep and also advanced to today’s 4 p.m. semi-final battle with Cheshire at Yale Field. Ironically, ths time shoe is on the other foot, as Amity has twice defeated the Rams this season.
“With the game still 0-0 going into the late inning, we just kept plugging way trying to find a way to score. With the way Mike was pitching, we felt one run would have been fine. To see us finally put up four runs in the bottom of the fifth was tremendous,” Amity Coach Sal Coppola said.
After the game, Concato revealed that his curve ball and slider were not working for him so he relied primarily on his fast ball. Throwing heat, the lanky right hander simply overpowered Foran. He had no-hitter going until Mike Deptulski legged out an infield single with one out in the top of the fifth inning. Concato’s only difficult inning came in the top of the seventh when he gave Lion lead off batter Joe Zanghi a free pass. One out later, Deptulski spanked a single into right center field. Cody Haden (who had two hits and scored the game’s only run in Foran’s 1-0 win on Sunday afternoon) followed by banging into a game-ending double play.
In addition to tossing his first career shutout, Concato hurled a 2-hit shutout and fanned a career-high 14 batters. He recorded at least one whiff in every inning and improved his record to 3-2.
According to Coppola, “From the start of the season until now Mike has gotten stronger and stronger. He has done a lot of weight lifting. As a result, he is much stronger, totally more consistent, and has far better control than he had at the start of the season. The best thing about Mike is he is only a sophomore. He has already pitched against the best teams in the SCC and proven that he can defeat them. `That has to really boot his self-confidence. The sky will be limit when Mike pitches against these teams the next two years.”
Malave (now 5-2) had blanked the Spartans on only three hits over the first four innings. After striking out Brian Speer to start the home half of the fifth, Malave walked Paul Gusmano. A wild pitch and a passed ball moved the Spartan catcher over to third base. Justin Ashworth also drew a free pass and immediately stole second base. With both runners in scoring position and only one out, Grayson Amoroso lofted a high fly ball into center field that sent pinch runner Anthony Faggiana home with the game’s first run. Nick Baviello, Keith Klebart, and Vin Siena followed with successive run-scoring base hits.
Coppola said, “Malave is a good pitcher. He mixed up his pitches and is sneaky fast. He baffled us with his curve and slider for the first four innings. I thought he got stronger as the game went on, but we kept plugging away. We had opportunities to score in the early innings, but didn’t get the job done until the bottom of the fifth.”
Speer singled with one out in the bottom of the second but was thrown out trying to steal second base. That gamble backfired as Adam Kyasky followed Speer with a base hit. Ashworth led off the home half of the next inning with a walk. He swiped second and was singled over to third base by Baviello. That threat went by the boards when Klebart banged into a double play.
Malave went the distance, giving up four runs on six hits while striking out six and walking three. With the loss Foran’s record dipped to 14-7. The Spartans’ victory over the Lions snapped a two-game losing streak and improved Amity’s record to 14-7.
