CBA Edges Middletown South In Extra Innings Behind Dalatri's Arm, Martorano's Bat

Photo above: Dalatri letting one fly in his 122-pitch gem

MIDDLETOWN – Future University of North Carolina battery-mates, Luca Dalatri and Brandon Martorano keyed an important 3-1 divisional win over No.4 Middletown South Wednesday in extra innings.

Martorano jumped all over reliever Johnny Zegga’s first offering in the top of the eighth of a 1-1 ball game sending it over the left-centerfield fence for a two-run bomb. His moonshot easily cleared the 355 mark for his first home run of the season driving in leadoff hitter Cid Porter who had singled to open the eighth for a 3-1 lead.

Dalatri then returned to the mound for the eighth and mowed down the side in order striking out the final three batters of the game on 11 pitches in a herculean effort that saw him throw 122 pitches en-route to a school-record 19 strikeouts.

The future Tar Heel walked one and tossed a complete-game three-hitter to improve to 3-0 this season and 28-2 for his career. He is 23-0 since the start of 2014 season and is seven wins away from breaking the Shore Conference record for wins in a career set by 2006 Toms River Graduate Casey Ganor.

No. 1 ranked CBA (7-1, 4-0) has won 19 straight against New Jersey competition dating back to their 9-5 loss to Middletown South last May 4.

Dalatri was determined to go out for the eighth even after pitching coach Marty Kenney Jr. had told him his day was finished after the seventh and 111 pitches.

“I felt comfortable and just wanted the ball,” Dalatri said, who convinced head coach Marty Kenney Sr. to let him go out for the eighth. “I wasn’t coming out, I started the game and I wanted to finish it.”

“He’s great, he battled real hard in the sixth, seventh and eighth,” Martorano said of Dalatri’s performance. “I know he was tired but he’s a bulldog out there and he toughed it out for the team.”

In the eighth, with Porter on third and one out, Eagles head coach Ryan Spillane decided to bring in Zega in relief of Jon Martin, who pitched valiantly lasting 7 1/3 innings and struck out seven Colts while allowing seven hits and a pair of walks. Martin got out of a first inning jam with by striking out Martorano and Dalatri on consecutive at-bats with runners on the corners.

With Zega now on the mound it didn’t take Martorano long to break the tie. He was all over a hanging curve ball on the first pitch Zega threw to him to give CBA – ranked No.1 in the Shore Conference – the lead for good.

“It was a breaking ball that kind of just hung in there,” said Martorano, who led the Shore Conference with 11 home runs a year ago. “I think he just made a mistake. Johnny’s a good pitcher, so you don’t get many of those and you just have to capitalize on what you get. Whenever I get a pitch in the zone I like to hit I feel like I could do some damage with it, that’s kind of the hitter I am.”

Dalatri escaped a first inning jam with runners at second and third and two outs when second baseman Luke Chece saved two runs with a diving stop of a liner up the middle and strong throw from his knee’s that just beat the runner at first.

“I didn’t really get out of it, Chece got me out of it,” Dalatri said. “He made a hell of a play and he really works hard on his defense and that play showed. You saw my emotions out there; I was just really pumped up.”

The Colts took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth on a RBI single by Porter – who went 3-for-4 with an RBI, double and run scored – then a rare miscommunication between Matorano and Dalatri allowed Middletown South (3-2, 3-2) to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth.

Heading into the sixth, Dalatri had struck out 10 of his last 13 batters and had not allowed a hit since the first inning. But with two outs and runners at second and third after a leadoff double to left by Tom Gannon and a one-out walk to Zega, Dalatri uncorked a high wild pitch to Zach Schild on a 2-2 count that went to the backstop with Gannon sliding under Dalatri’s tag at home to tie the game.

“That was my bad,” Dalatri said. “I picked a really bad time in the game to make a mistake like that; it was definitely my bad.”

“It was a complete cross-up,” Martorano said. “I called a curve ball and he threw a fast ball. The run is completely on us two. In that moment I felt terrible.”

Dalatri then worked a perfect seventh and eighth inning striking out five of the final six batters to close out the game in dominant fashion.

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