Colts Baseball Survives Scare From Oceanside in Game One of Conference Quarterfinals

Leading 10-2 in the fourth inning, it looked like Calhoun was going to cruise to victory against Oceanside in game one of the conference AA quarterfinals yesterday.

Aided by sloppy play from the Colts, Oceanside went on to score nine runs over the next two innings to give Calhoun a scare. Fortunately, the Colts were able to score enough runs and received a clutch pinch hit, two-RBI double from John Eyerman to hold on for the win, 12-11.

What allowed Oceanside to get back in the game?

Calhoun coach Mike Marino summed it up in two words.

"Bad defense," Marino said. "They hit the ball to our players, and some of the guys just couldn't make the plays. When you make too many errors you give a team a little more heart to make a comeback."

Three RBIs from Robbie Rosen, and two apiece for Ryan Kass, Tom Viverito and Eyerman helped the second-seeded Colts defeat the eighth-seeded Sailors to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series. Joe Christopher pitched five innings to get the victory.

The Colts got the victory, but they weren't altogether pleased with the effort.

"We were a little lackadaisical out there," Christopher said. "We didn't bring our A-game today."

The Colts plated their first run of the day off an RBI double by Rosen in the first inning off Oceanside pitcher Mike Russ. A bloop single by Viverito scored another, and they added one more on an errant throw on a stolen base attempt.

Oceanside responded with two runs in the top of the second off RBI hits by Nick Iadevaio and Alex Pallatto.

The Colts bats went back to work in the second. After a single by Kass and a double by Jake Thomas, Kass would score on an RBI fielder's choice by Rosen. Viverito then hit a ground ball that was misplayed by the Oceanside first baseman to score another run.

A barrage of doubles in the third led Calhoun to their biggest inning yet. Dan Sullivan, Kass and Rosen all doubled in the inning to drive in a combined four runs. The Colts added another run in the inning off an errant pickoff throw by Oceanside.

The five run inning gave Calhoun a commanding 10-2 lead.

In the fifth, Oceanside began to chip away. An RBI double by Matt Strandberg scored Joseph Totino, and an RBI fielder's choice by Chris Flynn scored another.

Just when it looked like the Colts would get out of the inning with minimal damage, Iadevaio hit a groundball to shortstop that took a bad hop over Kass's glove. Two runs scored on the play, and Oceanside added one more in the inning off of another Calhoun error. The score was suddenly 10-7.

"They shouldn't have been in it," Kass said. "We gave them a shot to win it and we were fortunate that they didn't."

In the bottom half of the fifth, Eyerman hit a clutch pinch hit two-RBI double that drove in Thomas and Rosen to make it 12-7.

But the Sailors kept surging in the sixth. They received RBI singles from Flynn and Joe Gallub, and then a two-RBI double by Iadevaio made it 12-11. With runners on second and third and one out, pitcher Mike Simon then got Michael Connell to pop out and Brian Ellis to strike out.

Simon then pited a perfect seventh to give Calhoun the victory.

"We made a good comeback," Oceanside coach Andrew Morris said. "The umpire blew a few calls and took a few strikes away from us at the end there, but we showed character and I can't wait to play tomorrow."

It was a win for the Colts, but they know that they need to improve their play if they want to beat Oceanside in game two, which takes place tomorrow (today's game was rained-out) at 4:30 p.m. at Oceanside.

"Now we gave them some momentum going into tomorrow and they're thinking that they could probably beat us," Marino said. "And they're right if we keep playing like this. It was some bad baseball."