RallyNorth.net

Thu, Apr 24, 2008 10:00 AM @ Masconomet

Team	Final
Triton	2
Masconomet	3

Triton can't solve Masco mystery

Friday, April, 25 By John Shimer
Staff writer

For Triton, Masconomet's home park has proven to be a house of horrors the past two seasons.

Last year, the Vikings' season ended there in extra innings against the Chieftains in the second round of the state tournament. In their only scheduled meeting this year, Triton's luck was no better.

Masco's Evan Bunker hit a walkoff, RBI-single yesterday that plated Pat Matvichuk in the bottom of the seventh to hand Triton a bitter 3-2 defeat.

Nothing came easy for either club, though, despite the fact that neither Masconomet's James Riordan nor Triton's Joe Katin (7 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts, 2 earned runs) had their best stuff on the mound. Both pitchers did, however, manage to pound the zone with enough offspeed pitches for strikes.

"I told Joe on the bus ride over to the game that there was no one I would rather have pitching this game for us," said Triton coach Steve Padovani. "He's not dominant or overpowering, but when he gets in trouble he finds ways to work himself out it."

The Chieftains struck first after Cam Greely led off the bottom of the first with a walk, stole two basesand was eventually driven home with an RBI single by Kyle Shepard. Then Masco doubled its lead in the third when Matvichuk got on with one out thanks to a catcher's interference call, stole second and was singled home by Riordan.

The score stayed 2-0 until the top of the sixth as each pitcher consistently worked his way out of trouble. Adam Jones led off the inning with a hit for the Vikes and Cam Kneeland followed with a walk. A pop-out and a ground out to second advanced the runners a base each before Andrew Fecteau hit a hot shot deep in the hole that Masco shortstop Chris Splinter got to but knocked away, allowing both runners to score and tie the game.

After Katin worked closed out the sixth without further damage, the Vikings then threatened to take the lead in the top of the seventh, but a controversial call would change the outcome of the game.

Mike Cerebone led off the inning with a walk for the Vikes and appeared to take second cleanly on a passed ball. However, after the umpires got together for a conference, they ruled that Sam Ferrara had fouled off the pitch moving Cerebone back to first, forcing Ferrera to try a sacrifice bunt which failed. The next batter for the Vikes, Devan Culverwell, singled to right, but after a ground out and intentional walk to Kneeland, Masco was able to get out of the inning with a ground out to second.

"I was really upset about the foul ball call because the umpires' exact words were, 'We heard two sounds, and we're going to assume the first sound was a foul ball,'" explained Padovani. "I said, 'You're basically making a call on an assumption,' but it's high school athletics and sportsmanship is important, so I didn't carry the argument any further."

Failing to score in the top of the seventh proved to be fatal as Matvichuk led off with a single for Masco and was eventually singled home with two out by Bunker to win the game.

"(Masco coach) Joe Marchesi is a friend of mine and he runs a great program. It just seems like good things don't happen to us at this field," Padovani said of his team's bad luck. "I'm proud of the way my kids battled though because early on it didn't look good for us at the plate, but we found a way to get a couple of runs across the plate and play hard against what I think is one of the premier teams in the state. We just didn't get a couple of breaks"

According to Marchesi, the game could have gone either way.

"This game was a coin flip, it could have gone either way, I think it just came down to who made less mistakes," Marchesi stated.

A big key for the Chieftains was getting the guys at the top of the lineup on base, Greely and Matvichuk, and then using them to advance on the base paths and manufacture runs.

"We've got some pretty good speed at the top of our lineup, and with a righty on the mound for Triton, we were able to steal some bases off their pitcher despite the fact their catcher has a good arm," Marchesi said. "But, later in the game they got back into it when we made some mistakes, and we stopped getting on base and being aggressive at the plate. In the end we were able to make just enough plays to win.

"This is a good reality check. To get the nerves out of the way and know that the kids know how to battle in a tight game and keep their composure is good."

Marchesie lauded Triton's competitiveness.

"Triton is tough, probably the best team we've faced so far. We made a couple of blunders in the field that they took advantage of, but we were able to pull it off at the end."