Fox Lane Baseball Shocks Top-Seed Ketcham In Extra Innings, Advances to Semis

It was one swing of the bat for the Fox Lane Foxes that changed everything in their quarterfinal matchup against the Roy C. Ketcham Indians of Wappingers Falls.

With a leadoff home run by right fielder Jake McGrath in the top of the 8^th inning and a scoreless bottom half from pitcher Brandon Serio, Fox Lane defeated number-one seed Ketcham 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Class AA Section I Playoffs.

Fox Lane advanced to the semifinals on Tuesday and will play at home against number 12 seed North Rockland at 4:30 p.m.

The pitching matchup of Seth Lamando for Ketcham and Andrew Rosenbaum for Fox Lane was a pitchers' duel through the top of the fith with the score 2-1 in favor of Ketcham.

In the bottom of the 5^th, two errors and a wild pitch allowed two more Indians to score and forced Rosenbaum out of the game. Zach Marine would come out of the bullpen and keep Ketcham off the board, keeping the score 4-1 at the end of five innings.

Going into the top of the sixth, Fox Lane was facing an uphill climb but loaded the bases with nobody out. Shortstop Jesse Hunt then flew out to center for the first out, which was followed by a catcher's interference call while Kyle Colesanti was at bat allowing a run to score.

With the lead now cut to 4-2 and two outs in the inning, DH John Albanese single – coupled with an error – brought home two runners to tie the game at 4.

Ketcham and Fox Lane stayed tied going into the eighth inning, setting the stage for McGrath's huge home run.

McGrath hit a towering drive that just cleared the fence in left for a home run that put Fox Lane up 5-4.

"When I first hit it, I thought I was a little bit under it, I started running it out and was thinking maybe a triple, but I was glad to see it go over though," McGrath said.

After the Foxes added an insurance run later in the inning to go up by two runs, Fox Lane Coach Matt Hillis brought in Brandon Serio, who had been hit in the face on a comebacker when he was on the mound on Friday. But Serio was up to the challenge, and earned the save.

"Brandon is certainly our best option in that situation," Hillis said.

Zach Marine got the win after throwing three scoreless innings out of the bullpen and Hillis called him the MVP of the game.

Fox Lane is now ready to play a much unexpected home game in the semifinals and is now one step away from an even more unexpected trip to the finals.

Editor's Note: The final score was originally reported as 7-5, when in fact it was 6-4. This has since been corrected.