Saladino's Two Strike Blast in Final Inning Makes Him Colts Hero

When a little kid is holding a baseball bat, he always envisions the ideal situation: It's the last inning. The team you are on is losing, and you have a chance to be the hero.

That was exactly the situation yesterday in the top of the seventh. After Zack Goldstein singled, Frank Trimarco flew out for the second out of the inning, and then Joe Saladino stepped up.

He delivered.

Saladino worked the count. The count ran to 3-2 on Calhoun's starting right fielder, and he finally saw the mistake he was waiting for.  Joe Lipari left a fastball up and over the outside corner, and Saladino connected.

He was able to tuck the ball over the right fielder, and when all was said and done, he slid in safely with a two-run homer, and his run ended up being the winner, as the visiting Colts defeated Massapequa 2-1.  Following the game, Saladino was at a loss for words.

"It's a good day," Saladino said. "We deserved to win the game, and I was happy to contribute to the win."

The win was the first for the Colts (5-3) against the Chiefs since 2002, and it was largely thanks to the efforts of starter Joe Christopher. In seven innings of work, Christopher allowed just one run and scattered seven hits. He also struck out 10. Chief batters. What was more impressive was how he had command of all of his pitches, and he felt good from the get-go.

"I felt great in warm-ups," Christopher said. "I felt like I had all of my pitches working today. You gotta be comfortable throwing all of your pitches at any time."

Joe Lipari was impressive as well for Massapequa (4-4), and despite getting a couple of early chances, Calhoun was unable to push any runs across early. In fact, the Colts stranded four runners in the first four innings, and that was in part due to Lipari's ability to induce ground balls. 10 of the outs that he retired in his seven innings of work came via the ground ball.

"Joe pitched well for us," Massapequa coach Tom Sheedy said. "This was a great game in which you had two teams that both deserved to win.  Unfortunately for us, only one team got the win and it wasn't us."

The Chiefs got on the board against Christopher in the fourth when Michael Marocchi came to the plate for his first at-bat. He was replacing Mike Campbell, who had to come out of the game after fouling a ball of his foot. He was able to take a fastball up the middle to drive in the game's first run, and for a while, it seemed like it might be the only run.

"I just tried to go the other way," Marocchi said. "I was fortunate to get the hit, but it would have been better if we had gotten the win."

Robbie Rosen also had a solid game, going 2-for-2 with a walk in the win.

"I just try not to do too much," Rosen said. "You need to zone in and hit it where it's pitched, and that's what I was doing. Clearly, that's what Joey did as well."

Before the big at-bat in the seventh, Saladino was 0-for-2 with a pair of groundouts, but Calhoun coach Mike Marino was proud of how Saladino handled himself at the plate.

"He did an excellent job taking advantage of the mistake," Marino said. "It's good that he went with the pitch and didn't try to pull it, because who knows what could have happened?"

Mike Simon takes the hill for the Colts today at these two teams lock horns again at Calhoun High School at 4:15 p.m.