Box Score PITCHING AND DEFENSES RULE
AS PACE OUTLASTS BENTLEY IN MARATHON
COTONE'S 15TH INNING WALK-OFF HIT ENDS CLASSIC NE-10 GAME
PLEASANTVILLE, NY - Joe Cotone (Yorktown Hts., NY/Lakeland) (Yorktown Heights,
NY/Lakeland) ended a marathon game at Finnerty Field as
his shot in the left center gap in the 15th inning gave
the Setters their ninth conference win in 10 games as Pace
outlasted Bentley College 3-2. The Setters improve to 19-10 overall
and 9-1 in the NE-10, while the Falcons drop to 10-19 and 5-9 in
conference play.
Bentley jumped out to an early lead as Garrett Stenhouse
(Warwick, RI) led off the second with a triple and scored on a
sacrifice fly by Mike DeCoste (Chelmsford, MA). The Falcons took
advantage of two Setter errors in the third as Brett Damato
(Commack, NY) and Ricardo Sullivan (Wayland, MA) both reached on
errors to start the innings, putting runners at first and third.
Jason Cusumano (Port Chester, NY) grounded into a fielder's choice
to score Damato and a 2-0 Bentley lead.
The Setters rallied in their half of the seventh inning as
Jack Cawley (Bronx, NY/Iona Prep) (Bronx, NY/Iona Prep) singled with one
out, moved to second on a balk and reached third on a groundout.
Cawley scored as Cotone tripled down the right field line. Cotone
scored the equalizer as Aaron Zrenda's (Niantic, CT/Loomis Chaffee Prep) (Niantic, CT/Chaffee
Loomis Prep) grounder to short stop was misplayed to get
the Setters even at 2-2.
The teams remained scoreless for the next seven innings as the
Setter bullpen was lights-out behind four innings each by
Frank Luongo (West Harrison, NY/Harrison) (West Harrison, NY/West Harrison) and
Mackenzie King (Blairstown, NY/North Warren). The
Setter offense threatened in four of the seven innings, putting
runners in scoring position but could not come up with the clutch
hit. Pace broke through in the 15th inning as Cawley
doubled down the right field line with one out and stole third.
Following a strikeout, Cotone's drive to the left-center gap fell
and Cawley scored easily to give the Setters an exhilarating and
hard-fought epic win.
Cawley had three hits on the day and scored twice, while
stealing three bases. Cotone accounted for all the Setter runs as
he had two RBIs and scored one run. On the hill for Pace,
Zach Dayton (North Falmouth, MA/Falmouth) (North Falmouth, MA/North Falmouth)
tossed seven innings, allowing six hits and two runs (one earned),
while picking up five strikeouts. The bullpen took over, dominating
the rest of the game as Luongo struck out three in his four innings
and King (2-1) fanned seven in four innings.
The Setters return to action on Thursday, April 9 when they will
travel to Waltham, MA to take on Bentley College in a Northeast-10
Conference game scheduled for a 3:30 pm first pitch.
