ONE WIN FROM TITLE
Andrews, Mayer key come-from-behind win
WEST WARWICK – Corey Mayer didn’t return from his family vacation to Daytona Beach, Fla. until Monday, and admitted fully that was the prime reason he didn’t have his best stuff when Upper Deck Post 14 took on Gershkoff/ Auburn Post 20 of Cranston on Tuesday night.
In fact, early on in this R.I. American Legion Senior Division Tournament winners’ bracket final at McCarthy Field, not many of his teammates were in typical prime form, either.
Upper Deck, however, eventually found a chink in Gershkoff’s armor, overcame a four-run deficit with a sixrun explosion in the top of the fifth inning and cruised to a most satisfying 9-5 victory before perhaps 120 fans.
It appeared that skipper Matt Allard might pull Mayer, a Lincoln High senior-to-be and righty fireballer, from the contest after he yielded a fifth run in the bottom of the fourth, but that flurry soon after provided Mayer with some new found confidence. He ended up going five full frames and yielding four hits, all five runs (two earned) and three passes while fanning eight.
“I didn’t get back until (Monday) afternoon; I brought a ball and glove with me to Florida so I could do some pitching and keep my arm loose, but I didn’t do a lot,’ Mayer confessed afterward. “I struggled a bit with my accuracy because we were gone. I wasn’t finishing my chest, meaning the ball would sail on me. And, if I thought about it too much and overcompensated, I’d be low in the dirt.
“My entire mood changed after we rallied,” he added with a grin. “When you’re pitching with the lead, it’s way easier. You’re more relaxed, and you trust your pitches more; you’re not as tense.”
Mayer also brought up what former Lions’ teammate Steve Andrews did to ignite the “Deckers.” With two men on and no one out in that wild fifth, he crushed a three-run blast to deep right.
“We started off with two hits, and Steven hit that bomb; I think it’s still going,” Mayer laughed. “After that, we were rolling.”
Naturally, Andrews led the offense, going 2-for-5 with the dinger, three RBI and run scored, but Addison Kopack finished 2-for-4 with a double, triple and two runs scored; Kyle DeLuca 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run; Sean Doris 1-for-3 with a two-bagger, RBI and two runs; Shane Calabro 2-for-4; Connor Sheehan and Tyler McNulty 1-for-4 with an RBI and run; and Drew Szafranski 1-for-4 with a run.
Most importantly, with the verdict, second seed UD (20-9-1 overall) had Wednesday off before playing the winner of Gershkoff and New England Frozen Lemonade Post 43 in the state title tilt tonight at 5 p.m. back at McCarthy.
Gershkoff, the top seed, fell to 26-7 overall – and 16-5 against Ocean State squads.
“We said it after the game, Cumberland/ Lincoln kids, they’re gritty, they keep grinding,” Allard stated later. “It doesn’t matter if they’re playing seven innings or nine, they just don’t give up. My hat’s off to them. It was a great comeback against a very good team. Gershkoff is very, very good.
“As for Corey, you could see that his control wasn’t where it usually is, but he kept grinding and gave us what we needed,” he added. “I thought he actually got stronger as time went on.”
Kopack also pitched brilliantly. In the final two frames, he didn’t yield a hit but did walk one while fanning three.
“Kope came in amd closed the door,” he noted, “but he’s been doing that all season.”
Still, in the early going, not much went right for UD. In the bottom of the second, Mayer struck out Drew Spirito, but the ball got past batterymate McNulty and he reached on the wild pitch. With one down, Tom Barbieri walked, and – after Mayer forced Dante Parisi to foul out to third – Dante DeFalco reached on an infield single to load the bags.
(On that hard grounder down the third-base line, Kopack made a spectacular diving stop but couldn’t make a play at any base).
Spirito raced home on another wild offering, and No. 9 hitter Robbie Antoine hit a bouncer to shortstop Calabro, who immediately fired to Andrews at first. The ball, though, seemed to clip off his glove, and two more runs scored.
Just like that, Post 20 held a 3-0 lead. “Unfortunately, Steve’s glove broke at the wrong time; the ball broke the webbing,” Allard said. “He had to use Kope’s glove the rest of the game.”
Spirito drilled a one-out, solo homer in the third to make it 4-0, but Post 14 got on the board in the top of the fourth – thought it should have had more. Doris reached on a fielder’s choice, Larson walked (off of righty starter Bret Traficante) and McNulty beat out a miscue to load the bags.
DeLuca followed with an infield hit to plate Doris, but Calabro took a called third strike to end that surge.
Gershkoff nevertheless tacked on another in the fourth after DeFalco singled to left, moved to second on a pitch gone awry and scored on Anthony Ramos’ ground hit up the middle.
That set up UD’s remarkable fifth. Szafranski led with a bad-hop single to second, and Sheehan laid down a bunt, one retrieved by Traficante, but no one was covering first. Two pitches later, Andrews clubbed a massive blast at least 25 feet over the 340-foot sign in straightaway right to knife the deficit to 5-3.
“It was a 1-0 curve right down the middle, and I knew it was gone off the bat,” Andrews said with his patented sly grin. “I have to say I haven’t hit a ball that hard in a long time … I’m not surprised that it started our rally, not with this team. All of our guys, one through nine, can hit, and we did.
“I was thinking earlier that we were in trouble, though,” he added. “We were making too many mental mistakes. At the same time, I knew we’d give them a run for their money.”
After the dinger, Kopack crushed a triple to center and Doris and Larson both walked to fill the bases before Kopack scored on a wild pitch. Doris was thrown out at home on McNulty’s fielder’s choice, but DeLuca’s opposite-field, bloop hit to left plated McNulty to give UD its first lead at 6-5.
That’s when Gershkoff moved from Traficante to southpaw Zack Minacucci who promptly allowed Calabro a single to left, then hit Szafranski to load them up again. Incredibly, he also hit Sheehan to score DeLuca and take a two-run lead. All told, Allard’s bunch sent 12 to the plate. Kopack took over where he left off, ripping a double to deep left, and he scored when Doris smoked an opposite-field two-bagger down the left-field stripe. He scored on McNulty’s hit to right to – in essence – end it.
Mayer faced one batter in the sixth, issuing a pass to Barbieri, but Kopack came on to ice the Cranston squad.
“I’m sure Steve felt bad after making that error in the second inning,” Allard stated. “Like I said, the ball just went through his glove, but – boy – did he make up for it.”
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Upper Deck Post 14 000 162 0 – 9 – 12 – 1 Gershkoff/Auburn Post 20 031 100 0 – 5 – 4 – 2
Corey Mayer, Addison Kopack (6) and Tyler McNulty. Bret Traficante, Zack Minacucci (5), Cooper Krusz (7) and Tom Barbieri. 2B – Kopack, Sean Doris. 3B – Kopack. HR – Steve Andrews, Drew Spirito.