Cougars Hold On Late, Defeat Oceanside 11-10

After five and a half innings were through, it looked as if it would be smooth sailing to a victory for Kennedy over the Oceanside Sailors yesterday.

It turned out to be anything but that.

After rallies by the Sailors' offense in the sixth and seventh innings, the Cougars managed to close the door on them and get out of Oceanside with an 11-10 victory by the skin of their teeth.

Kennedy had a 10-3 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning. They had just added five insurance runs over the past two innings, which definitely proved to be important.

"In the last inning they came back all the way, to their credit," Kennedy head coach Eric Passman said.  "So it was important, obviously, to get those insurance runs."

After retiring the first batter of the sixth inning, Kevin Sustad gave up two walks and a single to load the bases. He struck out the next batter, but gave up a bases clearing double to Oceanside's shortstop Chris Flynn. Another double in the inning gave them four runs, and made the score 10-7 going into the final inning.

In the bottom half of the last frame, new pitcher Matt Garber gave up a single and walked three as three runs scored with help from an error by third baseman John Rosse.

With the score 11-10, the tying run on base, and the top of the lineup due up, Rob Stalzer was brought in to pitch and didn't disappoint. He got the next two batters to ground out, and struck out the next one looking on a curveball.

"I knew I could get ahead of them and definitely felt I had the stuff to get it by them," Stalzer said.  "So once I got ahead in counts I was definitely able to put the kids away, and luckily got out of it with the win."

Without a home run from their lead off hitter Noah Shulman in the top of the seventh, the Cougars and Sailors would have been heading into extra innings. On a full count he muscled a pitch the opposite way and over the wall.

"We had some good hitting today, we had a couple of guys bang the ball," Passman said.  "Today we had our hitting shoes on."

One of those players he was talking about was second baseman Michael Crispino. He went 3-3 at the plate on Tuesday with a walk and a homer.

"I haven't really been hitting the ball well lately," Crispino said. "I tried visualizing that I was in the batter's box while I was in the batting cage and I saw the ball well today.

The Cougars jumped out to an early lead in the game after a few errors led to four runs in the second inning, and gave them a 5-0 lead.

"That's a very good hitting team and you don't want to give them extra runs," Oceanside head coach Andy Morris said of the Cougars.  "You don't want to give them extra at-bats and that's got to be our focus going into the playoffs."

Before those playoffs start, the Sailors will have a chance at redemption against the Cougars at Kennedy High School at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow.