Baseball: Valiant Foxes Fall In Title Game

No. 5 Fox Lane (19-4) got off to a 2-0 lead in the Section 1 Class AA championship game yesterday at Dutchess Stadium but No. 2 Ketcham was able to come back and hold on to a 5-4 victory to take the title.

“Both teams played great,” Fox Lane senior co-captain and center fielder Donny Castaldo said. “It was just a great game between two unbelievable programs. We may have lost but I feel very proud of what we have done the whole year and what we have accomplished.”

Fellow senior co-captain, second baseman Jake McGrath, concurred.

“This team is unbelievable,” McGrath said. “We have done everything together. I expected nothing less than a hard-fought effort from our team and that’s what we gave. We just ran out of time.”

The Foxes got off to a hot start when they scored their first two runs in the top of the opening inning. T.J. Hallock and Matt Oniffrey both registered infield singles with the bases loaded and no outs to put the Foxes up 2-0.

The Foxes attempted to get more but Ketcham pitcher and tournament MVP Kevin Lawrence struck out Chad Stroud and induced Chris Tomassi to ground into a double play to end the inning.

“We were just real pumped up to get out there and get ourselves a lead,” McGrath said. “We got those two runs right away. Unfortunately, we left a couple of runners on base but it was good to get a lead like that.”

Ketcham then took the lead when it rallied for three runs in the second for a 3-2 advantage. It could have been more without the heroics of Castaldo in the third inning.

The Indians’ Manny Felix smoked a ball to the heart of center field but Castaldo was able to catch it, threw to his short stop who doubled off Seth Lamando, who was on first and ran on the play because he felt for sure that there was no way Castaldo was going to catch it.

“I got a jump on the ball and caught it 15-20 feet from wall,” Castaldo said. “I saw the base runner had rounded second, so I knew I had a chance to get him. I threw to the shortstop and he got him out. I thought that gave us the momentum, for at least that moment.”

A moment that impressed Fox Lane coach Matt Hillis.

“The play was amazing,” Hillis said. “Donny is the type of kid that has such good baseball instincts that he just gets great jumps. The kid is just a true baseball player. It’s just really impressive to watch him play.”

Fox Lane starting pitcher T.J. Hallock was replaced in the fourth after he allowed his fourth run, which gave Ketcham a 4-2 advantage, by reliever Bobby Seraita.

“Bobby Seraita was incredible today,” Hillis said. “He spotted his fastball very well, he threw his changeup for strikes. He kept them off-balance for the rest of the game. He kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win.”

It was a good thing Seraita was on because the Foxes offense went scoreless for four innings after their hot start against Lawrence.

“He (Lawrence) was able to control his changeup, he had a slow curveball that we had trouble with, he was able to get himself out of jams,” Hillis said.

Ketcham scored one more run in the fifth before the Foxes rallied for two runs in the sixth to cut the Indians' lead to one, 5-4. Oniffrey started the rally with a lead-off double.

Stroud then walked, Tomassi struck out but a passed ball allowed Oniffrey and Stroud to move up a base.

Michael Johnston followed with a ground out to first, scoring Oniffrey before Spencer Chernus singled to bring in Stroud.

“Spencer had a huge, huge two-out hit,” Hillis said. “He did exactly what we told him, just go out and look for a first-pitch fastball.

McGrath then delivered a base hit before Richard Slenker flew out to end the inning.

“Jake had another solid base hit to left, first and second and we were feeling pretty confident with Richard up there,” Hillis said. “He hit the ball a long ways to right field but their guy tracked it down.”

Fox Lane did have runners on first and third with two outs in the seventh but Tomassi struck out swinging on a 2-2 count against reliever Matt Todd to end the game.

“I thought it was a great game,” Hillis said. “The most important thing was that they never stopped battling. This was a very, very special group of kids. They were dedicated the entire year. They worked their butts off. I just can’t say enough good things about this group of kids.”