Chatham Baseball Goes on Late Run to Halt Dover, 12-4

The Chatham Cougar baseball team got a surge of offensive production in its dominant, 12-4, win over Dover on Friday afternoon at Chatham High School.

The team was able to produce plenty of clutch hits in the win. Head Coach Doug Chambers thinks a team meeting may have something to do with the success.

"We had two days of practice, just good days of practice," he said. "We got a chance to sit down and talk to each other before practice and get it all out in the open and think that helped."

And after falling in a 2-0 hole after two innings, the Chatham offense came to life.

In the bottom of the second, after Chatham right fielder Roger Wilson was hit by a pitch and moved to third on an errant throw from Dover pitcher Matt Rita, Kevin Giannattasio sent him home with an RBI single to left field.

Up next, Kevin Falconi hit a fly ball to right field that was mishandled, scoring Giannattasio and sending Falconi to third, tying the game, 2-2.

Another hit batsman, this one in the form of shortstop Jonathan Berntsen, would set the table for center fielder Dan Haus to rip an RBI single, giving Chatham a 3-2 lead.

Chatham starting pitcher Matt Reader was able to get by, holding onto the Chatham lead until the fifth inning.

In the fifth, Reader's control began to waver, as he hit the first batter of the inning on a 3-2 pitch.

After a single to right field, a sacrifice bunt tied the game, 3-3, and Dover eventually went ahead, 4-3, on an error.

Reader would go 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on six hits while walking three.

"He's a battler," Chambers said of his starting pitcher. "He'll do everything he can to keep us in a ballgame, and he didn't have his best stuff but he was there to get us the outs when we needed them."

Chatham would quickly regain the lead—and add to it—in the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Cougar lineup batted around.

A single by catcher Tommy Devito, a walk by Fox and two wild pitches would set up an RBI single by Giannattasio, giving Chatham the 5-4 advantage.

The Cougars would then capitalize on a seven walks in the inning. Hits from Haus, Greg Bazzani, Reader, Devito, Fox, and Brian Ballard would result in seven RBIs, leading Chatham to the impressive 12-4 win.

"It was nice to be on this side of a big inning," Chambers said. "We're 1-0 in the second half of the season."

Haus led Chatham with three hits and two RBIs and Giannattasio and Devito had two hits and two RBIs each.