Cougars Draw Blood (Literally), But Calhoun Toughs Out Victory

With the bases loaded and the game tied at four, Jake Thomas stepped up to the plate for the Colts yesterday in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Kennedy coach Eric Passman had just put in his ace-in-the-hole, pitcher Kevin Archbold. Down 0-2 in the count, Thomas managed to slap a single up the middle to give Calhoun a lead that they would not relinquish.

Crosstown rivals Calhoun (6-3) and Kennedy (4-5) met up yesterday afternoon at Calhoun High School for what turned out to be a thrilling game from start to finish. Trailing 4-2, Kennedy battled back to tie it at four, but Thomas' single would win the game for the Colts, 6-4.

"With bases loaded and less than two outs I knew I just had to make contact," Thomas said. "They were bringing their ace in, so I just choked up with the 0-2 count and was able to hit it up the middle."

Frank Trimarco picked up the victory for Calhoun, pitching the final two innings in relief of starter Joe Saladino. Matt Garber received the loss in relief of starting pitcher Andrew Wood.

"We didn't take advantage of a lot of opportunities," Passman said. "We left a lot of runners on base and we didn't come through with the big hits."

Kennedy got on the board first, as Justin Harrison launched a deep double to center to score Jordan Leopold in the first. They tacked on another in the second after Joseph Gallito hit an opposite way home run to left-center field to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead.

"It was a great game," Gallito said. "It was close until the end. They got a couple of big hits and that's the reason why we lost."

Calhoun wasted no time getting the runs back, as they scored two in the bottom half of the second in peculiar fashion.

After singles by Robbie Rosen and Joe Christopher, third basemen Zach Goldstein hit a ground ball that Kennedy third basemen Matt Bruno shorthopped over to first base. The ball bounced off first basemen Justin Gutterman's glove and hit Goldstein in the face after he touched first. The ball got away, and with Goldstein lying on the ground in agony, both Rosen and Christopher came around to score.

After being tended to by the medical staff, Goldstein would change out of his blood-soaked jersey and remain in the game.

A two-run homer by Ryan Kass put the Colts up 4-2 in the third inning. That made it Kennedy's turn to battle back, as a Michael Crispino sacrifice fly cut the deficit to one in the fourth, and then Noah Shulman hit an RBI double off the right field fence in the sixth to tie the game, 4-4.

The Colts loaded the bases with one out in the sixth after three singles by Goldstein, Trimarco, and Kass. Passman decided to make a pitching change to insert his power lefty, Archbold, to face Thomas. After falling into an 0-2 count, he rolled over a curveball and managed to sling it up the middle to score Goldstein, who almost left the game earlier after taking the errant throw to the face.

"The day started out with me getting hit in the face with the ball," Goldstein said. "I was bleeding everywhere and my uniform was drenched in blood. But I came back because I knew I wanted to play and wanted to help the team win. And in the end I scored the winning run."

The Colts added one more run on a sacrifice fly by Rosen to make it 6-4.

The Cougars wouldn't go down easily, as they managed to get the tying runs to the plate in the seventh. However, Trimarco would get John Rosse to pop up to end the game and secure the victory for the Colts.

It was exactly the kind of exciting, intense game one would expect from two teams that share a school district.  Fans should have plenty more quality baseball to watch when the Colts and Cougars do battle again at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, with Kennedy playing host this time around.

"Hopefully we can come back Monday and beat them at home," Gallito said.