Captain Clutch: Rosen's Homer Leads Colts Past Jets

It was only a matter of time.

The Calhoun Colts combined timely hitting with solid pitching on Friday and they beat the East Meadow Jets for their first conference victory by the score of 11-5.

Calhoun took advantage of some early Jets miscues to get an early advantage, and they never looked back, and that was nice to see for coach Mike Marino.

"They played pretty good," Marino said. "We got some good pitching out of them, and the hitting came around from them. Hopefully we can keep doing that."

Lefty Jon Mekelburg got the start for the visiting Colts, and he was able to prevent the Jets from having a big inning, even though he admittedly did not have his best stuff on this night.

"It wasn't my A game," Mekelburg said. "But I was able to work with it. Fortunately, the team scored a lot of runs, and that's always what a starting pitcher is looking for."

Mekelburg limited the Jets to three runs on six hits over five innings before giving way to Frank Trimarco. Mekelburg struck out five and walked two in the effort.

"Jon battled today," Marino said. "He didn't have his best stuff, but he battled and he got us a win."

Offensively, the Colts (2-2, 1-2) really had it working on Friday, as they seemed to execute on all cylinders. One person who was all smiles after the game concluded was Robbie Rosen, who finished 2-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs.

"I was able to hang in there," Rosen said, referring to the at-bat in which he was able to hit a three-run homer. "There were two strikes, and I was able to foul off a tough pitch, and then I hit one over. It was a great feeling."

Everyone in the Colts starting lineup had at least one hit, and they also executed with runners in scoring position and two out.

"That's very important," said Alex Ras, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. "The team's got to step up and get those runs in. That's how you win the game."

East Meadow (2-2, 1-2) couldn't come up with the clutch hit in a big spot, and they also made a few mental mistakes, including having Mike Favuzzi get picked off when they were trying to build a comeback rally.

"We're not good enough to play in this type of a game," East Meadow coach Ken Sicoli said. "We need to be able to keep the game close."

The Colts and Jets will face off once again at Calhoun tomorrow at 4:45 p.m., and East Meadow second basemen Mike Skoller looks forward to possibly getting redemption.

"We need to keep getting it to the next guy in the lineup," Skoller said. "Calhoun played great today, but hopefully we will take one from them on Monday and split the series."