Dillon's 2-Out Walk-off Double Increases Baseball's Playoff Chances

Belmont senior John Dillon came back from a season-long injury to dominate the Thanksgiving Day football game, laid down monster jams in Wenner Field House to lead the Marauders to the state basketball tournament and found time to pick up his guitar for a memorable alt-folk set at "Belmont Idol."

So, at bat with two outs and two strikes with a man on second in the bottom of the seventh inning with the game tied at three with Arlington (7-5, 3-2) yesterday, Wednesday, May 9, what did you think Dillon was going to do with Jonathan Matos' fastball?

Dillon rocketed the pitch over the right fielder to hit the fence at the 353 feet sign driving in Mark Rocha with the winning run as Belmont (7-5, 3-2) made Spy Ponder ace Matos a tough luck loser with a 4-3 walk-off victory at Brendan Grant Field.

Belmont sweeps the season match up with Arlington having beat the Spy Ponders 9-0 in April. The win also puts Belmont closer to post season play.

Mike Richardson pitched the complete game winner (four strikeouts) and nearly finished off the game in the top of the 7th when he gave up a two-out, two-strike single to catcher Remy Pontes driving in Dan Fitzgerald who got on base on a fielding error to tie the game at three. 

Belmont went ahead in the bottom of the second when Jake Cole came home on a single by DH Vijay Pathak (2 RBIs) who was starting his first game of the year.

Arlington came back in the top half of the third when Fitzpatrick came in on a Derek Costa single after he reached second on a passed ball. The Spy Ponders went ahead in the fourth as Dan Russell singled and then proceeded to third on two passed balls before coming in on a single.

Belmont hitters were put off-balanced by Matos fast accurate pitching, seeming to own the lower part of the strike zone. But the Marauders' scored a pair in the bottom of the 6th playing the small ball game: With one out, Richardson – not the fastest Marauder on the bases – legged out an infield single.

"I was blazing," said Richardson who was substituted for pitch-runner David Sullivan. Cole singled moving Sullivan to second where he scored on center fielder Danny Donahue's single that dropped in front of his counterpart Hunter Sleeper. Pathak came through with a fields choice scoring Cole who had moved to third on the throw to the plate when Sullivan scored.

While Billy Beane may have got the Marauders to the bottom of the seventh, Dillon proved that power can also get the job done.