Sals get win on diamond over top-ranked Caravel

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For The Dialog

 

BEAR – The fourth-ranked Salesianum baseball team traveled to Caravel on April 5 to take on the top-ranked Buccaneers and came away with a significant 3-1 win on a chilly night. Dante Cautillo drove in two runs, including the game-winner on a sacrifice fly.

Early on, it was a pitching duel between the Sals’ Nick Robino and Caravel’s Bryce Carney. Robino was able to strand two runners in the first, and in the second inning, Sallies’ catcher Zach Miller gunned down a runner at third, keeping it scoreless heading into the third.

Beck Million reached on an error and stole second for the Sals. With two outs, Cautillo drove him in with a single up the middle. Robino preserved the lead in the bottom half, striking out two batters after Caravel had gotten two men on base.

Caravel tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a strange play. With a runner on second and two outs, Troy Marenco singled to right field. The fielder fired the ball home, where Miller, the catcher, came up the third-base line a few steps to get it. There was a collision, and the umpire called the runner out. The Sals left the field, and the Bucs took their positions.

After the two umpires talked, they called catcher’s interference and ejected Miller for taunting the runner. That tied the game at a run each. Salesianum came back out to replay the final out and retired the next player on a groundout. The teams exchanged positions again, but the umps and coaches spent 20 minutes discussing the previous play.

Miller had been on the field for the replayed final out, apparently unaware he had been ejected. The Sals came back out of the dugout once more and got the final out again.

After that, Salesianum regained the momentum. In the fifth, John Andreoli led off with a double and was sacrificed to third. Chris Argo drew a walk and stole second. Cautillo then hit a ball deep enough to right to score Andreoli and to allow Argo to advance to third. With two outs, Josh McGuire hit a grounder that the Caravel first baseman stopped on a diving play, but McGuire beat the throw to first, driving in the insurance run.

Robino hit the 85-pitch limit after 5 2/3 innings, and Andrew Sullivan came in with two runners on base. He got the final four outs of the contest for the save. Cautillo called the game “a statement win.”

“We lost to these guys last year, and that incident in the fourth fired us up more,” he said.

Salesianum improved to 4-0 and travels to Sussex Central on Saturday for a 1 p.m. start. Caravel is now 2-1 and hosts Malvern Prep (Pa.) on Thursday at 6 p.m.