Pomperaug High School catcher Nick Hebert gets the relay too late to make a play as Bethel scores the tying run in the top of the seventh Thursday to send the game to extra innings. Pomperaug pulled out an edge-of-your-seat thriller 4-3 in nine innings. (Ken Morse photo)
#MIDDLEBURY #PHS #PANTHERS
By Ken Morse Special to the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer
The late great Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.” The Pomperaug baseball team brought a whole new perspective to that phrase when they stared the final out of the game in the face, not once, but twice, and came away with a victory.
The 9-2 Panthers pulled off an extra inning 4-3 win over Bethel that left the stunned crowd shaking their heads at what they just saw happen on the Pomperaug baseball diamond last Thursday.
“You talk about mental toughness,” said Pomperaug head coach Mike Eisenbach. “There is just no quit in this team. Sometimes baseball is a crazy game, and you just can’t figure it out when things like this happen.”
It was your typical run-of-the-mill pitchers’ duel between the Wildcats’ Jason Alvarez and the Panthers’ Grant Wallace until the final three innings turned into a woulda-coulda-shoulda affair.
Pomperaug had scored the only run they needed in the fourth inning when Nick Hebert drew a one-out walk, and pinch runner Chris Papallo scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh McGettigan.
As Wallace climbed the hill in the top of the seventh to get the final three outs and put the win in the books, the wind of change blew across the Pomperaug field. A lead-off single and a sacrifice bunt had Tyler Vooris at second base for the Wildcats.
The Panthers’ Chris McFarland lost the handle on a ball up the middle, allowing Vooris to score the tying run and sending the game to extra innings.
Two frames later, in the bottom of the ninth, “Lady Redemption” showed up, and McFarland crossed the plate with the winning run as the Panthers stormed out of the dugout in celebration as if it were the seventh game of the World Series.
“This was a game that challenged our character as a team,” said Pomperaug senior Brian Dagostino. “Everyone strikes out, and everyone makes an error but there is no finger-pointing on this team.
“We just pick each other up. We win as a team and we lose as a team. This is the kind of game that will light a fire under us.”
Pomperaug showed the kind of heart that beats in the chests of champions. Bethel scored in the top of the eighth, aided by walks and another infield error before Jacob Coviello got a strikeout and induced the final batter to line out to McFarland.
The Wildcats were just one out away from victory in the bottom of the eighth when Matt Brophy reached base on a two-out error. Wallace went down swinging for what appeared to be the final out of the game.
Then Bethel catcher Nick Luhrs dropped the third strike, and Wallace raced up the first base line. The throw got by the first baseman, and Pomperaug was still alive. Hebert sent a ground ball to shortstop that went for another error, and Brophy later scored on a wild pitch.
The Wildcats took the lead again in the top of the ninth with Ryan Dunfee on the mound for Pomperaug. Jake Roper hit a two-out run-scoring single to plate Kyle Breling and give Bethel a 3-2 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Panthers dodged fate one more time. Andrew Minchella doubled into the right field corner to get it started. McGettigan sent the tying run to third base on a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt.
McFarland took one for the team, getting hit by a pitch and then stole second base, putting runners at second and third. Connor Sullivan stepped to the plate with two outs and appeared to have grounded out to end the game on a slow roller up the third base side.
The Bethel third baseman fired the throw into the dirt, and it got by the first baseman as Minchella scored the tying run, and on the overthrow McFarland raced all the way home from second base with the winning run.
The Panthers exploded from the dugout to give McFarland a well-deserved back pounding, along with Sullivan as the would-be loss ended up in the win column in a game that could change the direction of this team for the remainder of the season.
“There were just so many ups and downs in this game it was like being on a roller coaster,” said senior Grant Wallace. “We’ve been in a couple of close games that didn’t go our way. The losses to Newtown and Ridgefield were games we should have had, so we needed this one, and the guys never gave up.”
The Panthers came into the game full of confidence after pounding out a 23-6 win over Kolbe Cathedral last Wednesday. In that game, Nick Albano got the start on the mound and went four innings, striking out seven.
Joe LaCava went one inning with a strikeout, and Jake Veillette came on to close the door, going the final two innings and striking out five. Pomperaug had a 7-0 lead when they put the game away, erupting for nine runs in the third to open up a 16-3 advantage.
The Panthers hung six more runs on the board in the fourth inning, marking the fourth time in 10 games that the offense scored six in one inning. Sullivan led the way at the plate with a triple on three hits, three runs and two RBI.
Wallace had a double on three hits, two runs and two RBIs, and Brophy added a double on two hits, two runs and two RBIs. Minchella and McFarland added three hits, two runs and two RBIs each.
Hebert, Dagostino and Chris Papallo all had two hits, two runs and two RBIs. McGettigan had a hit and two RBIs, Ryan Loiselle had a hit and two runs scored. Sherman Mitchell, Coviello, Jon Consiglio, LaCava and Dunfee all had a hit and a run.
“We came into the Bethel game fired up after the win at Kolbe,” Eisenbach said. “Everyone in the lineup contributed. I’m so proud of how these guys responded against a very good Bethel team.”
Pomperaug will play in Stratford Monday at Penders Field for a 7 p.m. game and will be at the Fairfield Hills Complex Wednesday for a 6:30 p.m. match-up with Newtown before they return home Thursday to take on Notre Dame of Fairfield for a 4:15 p.m. start.
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