So close
Carmichaels hangs on to beat Hopwood for 15th FCBL title
Santino Marra dashed around second and third base and raced frantically to home plate as Carmichaels catcher Robbie Wilson-Jones awaited the throw.
Hopwood Village Plaza’s Chad Petrush had laced a double into center field to bring in Andino Vecchiolla, cutting Carmichaels’ two-run lead to one, and Marra neared home plate hoping to score the tying run with two outs in the top of the seventh inning.
Dom Colarusso’s strong throw came slightly to Wilson-Jones’ right. He grabbed it and lunged to tag Marra who went into a head-first slide.
The play was extremely close … and the call was “out.”
The Copperheads had hung on to claim a 4-3 victory and a three-game sweep of Hopwood in the Fayette County Baseball League finals.
The series was much closer than the 3-0 final count.
Each of the three games — Carmichaels won Game 1, 2-0, and rallied to win Game 2, 8-5 — was a tight, tense battle.
“We were in every single game,” Hopwood manager Buddy Marra said. “We were a couple plays away. I know it was 3-0 but it was a great series.”
Carmichaels manager Dickie Krause, whose team claimed its league-record 15th championship and second in a row, agreed.
“The whole series was so tight. You couldn’t take an inning off,” Krause said. “It was just two very good baseball teams going really hard at each other, and that’s what this league is supposed to be about. Credit to them. They were missing some guys in Game 1 and then the squads went at each other so tough in Game 2 and again in Game 3.”
The outcome came down to the final play.
The Copperheads entered the seventh inning with a 4-2 lead. Gianni Cantini, who relieved starter Ethan Erhard in the fourth inning, got two quick outs, the first on a tough grounder to shortstop Colarusso. Vecchiolla kept Hopwood’s hopes alive with a double, bringing up Marra and prompting a mound visit by Krause, who opted for an intentional walk.
“Santino Marra has been a league MVP numerous times, he was on our team last year, he’s a phenomenal baseball player, he holds the PSAC record for hits, he’s got great power, we’re in a park that’s not that big,” Krause said in explaining his decision. “So, yeah, I realize I’m putting the tying run on base but if I let him hit a home run to tie the game, I’m not doing my job.
“No disrespect whatsoever to Chad, who’s a great catcher and a good hitter. I didn’t like seeing him up there either. But it really didn’t matter who was on deck, I have a base open so it was a no-brainer to me to bypass Santino.”
The move to walk his son didn’t surprise Buddy Marra.
“I knew they were going to do that but Chad made them pay for it … or he almost did if we would’ve got that call at the plate,” he said.
Petrush drilled a 3-1 pitch for a hit towards center fielder Brodee Latocha with Vecchiolla scoring easily and Santino Marra following behind.
“The ball took a skip in the grass and I got a little worried,” Latocha said. “But I rushed to it, got it, saw Dom and threw it to him and just hoped.”
“He hits the cut-off man and that was key,” Krause said. “How many times in high school do you see they don’t hit the cut-off man? And Dom made a hell of a throw.”
Colarusso quickly snagged the throw from Latocha, whirled around and fired to home plate.
“I didn’t know where Santino was, coming around third, but I knew it was going to be close,” Colarusso said. “I couldn’t tell from where I was what the call would be.”
Wilson-Jones didn’t know either.
“It was too close to call,” he said. “Those guys did a great job. Dom made a really good throw. It was drifting a little to my right but it got there in just enough time where I could grab it and get the tag down. I didn’t even think I had the ball in my glove but the umpire called him out and I looked in and saw I still had it.”
Krause watched and awaited the call.
“I couldn’t see from as far away as I was,” Krause said. “I just knew it was very, very close. I’m just thankful we got the call.”
Colarusso pumped his fist in celebration.
“It’s awesome, a great feeling,” he said of taking part in the game-ending play.
Carmichaels (17-3-1) took control early, scoring three runs in the first inning off Vecchiolla.
Colarusso drew a lead-off walk, took third when Alex Vansickle dropped a double down the left-field line and scored on Noah Mildren’s ground out. After Ben Shields walked, Luke Camden drilled a two-run double to center.
“Luke crushed it,” Krause said. “That was the hit of the game.”
The Copperheads pushed across what proved to be the winning run in the third inning.
Vansickle, Mildred and Camden each drew walks to load the bases with one out. Buddy Marra then opted to bring in Erik Streussnig for Vecchiolla.
“Rik hurt his foot in yesterday’s game and was at the doctors today getting x-rays and they were negative,” Marra said. “We were planning on starting him. He throws the ball hard. When we got in some trouble there he said he was ready to go, so I went with him.”
Streussnig got a strikeout but then hit Wilson-Jones with a pitch that brought in Vansickle to make it 4-0.
Hopwood (12-9) got to Erhard for two runs in the fourth inning to slice the lead in half.
Matthew Firestone made it 4-1 when he smashed a home run to left. Erhard recorded a pair of strikeouts before giving up a single to Streussnig and a walk to Anthony Piasecki. Chase Sankovich then singled on a sharp grounder up the middle to bring in courtesy runner Robbie Andrews.
Krause called on Cantini to relieve Erhard and he got an inning-ending strikeout.
Krause commended Erhard’s effort.
“We put him in a spot where he had only started one other game this year because of schedules basically,” Krause explained. “We were hoping to get maybe four from him and we got three and two-thirds, which I was pleased with.
“He comes in, he’s committed to this, he works hard at it. He was a good player at Waynesburg University and was a student of mine there. He’s a really polite, good kid and I’m happy he played a key role in us winning today.”
The Copperheads threatened to extend their lead in the fifth when Shields hit a one-out double to center but Streussnig got a ground out and a strikeout to keep the score at 4-2.
Hopwood had a chance to cut into the lead in the sixth inning. Justin Brestensky led off with a single, stole second and then attempted to steal third with two outs and Piasecki batting but was gunned down by Wilson-Jones’ perfect throw to third baseman Mildren.
Erhard gave up two runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts in 3.2 innings. Cantini tossed the final 3.1 innings, coughing up one run on three hits with a walk and four strikeouts in earning the win.
“Gianni did the job, although I would’ve liked the ending to be a lot less exciting than that,” Krause said. “But we’ll take the end result.”
Wilson-Jones accounted for two of Carmichaels’ six hits. Vecchiolla and Firestone had two hits apiece for Hopwood which wound up with eight hits.
Vecchiolla surrendered four runs on four hits and five walks with three strikeouts in 2.1 innings in taking the loss. Streussnig pitched 3.2 scoreless frames, allowing two hits, one walk and the hit batter with five strikeouts.
Both managers lauded their opponent.
“They’re a class act, from their coach to their players and, of course, they have two (Marra and Vecchiolla) that played for us last year,” Krause said. “The whole series was all about baseball. I have tremendous respect for them.”
Buddy Marra returned the compliment.
“My hat’s off to Carmichaels,” Marra said. “They’re a good team, a good defensive team, a good pitching team. They earned it. From the coaches to the players, they’re respectful people.
“My guys have big hearts. They gave it their all.”