Windsor completes run with 3-1 win over Maloney for Class L baseball title
MIDDLETOWN — After Windsor starting pitcher Nathan Acabchuk rolled No. 10 Maloney into a game-ending double play in Friday’s Class L state championship, his teammates jumped around, threw their gloves into the air and convened in front of the mound where Acabchuk tackled catcher Jonathan Lattimer.
Breon Parker made his sprint in from center field to join his team, but not before making a pitstop at second base to console Maloney’s Joseph Rodriguez.
Then Parker jumped on top of the pile as a state champion.
Some 1,862 fans filled the wooden bleachers surrounding the perimeter of Palmer Field — half in green and white, the others in maroon — to watch the top-seeded Warriors defeat Maloney, 3-1.
“All these guys, we love each other,” Acabchuk said after pitching a complete game and allowing only one run and four hits. “We really do. And I think that’s what helped us get here and eventually win it all.”
It was Parker who laid down a fateful sacrifice bunt with runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth inning. Maloney’s throw to first landed deep in foul territory while Frank Kula and Ryan Cramer raced around to score. Parker, with major speed, had his eyes set on third base but was thrown out. Nonetheless, the Warriors trotted back into the field to a rousing applause from their expansive maroon sea of support.
“You’re going 110% just like all of our guys do and, you know, you see it go past and the next thing is don’t hesitate, just go. Just go,” Parker said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling.”
From there, Acabchuk locked in. He shut down Maloney in order in the sixth and proceeded to mow down the next six Spartans to record the Warriors’ 24th win of the season. They finished the season with a 24-1 record.
“Nate did what he’s done all year,” Windsor coach Joe Serfass said. “He had one strikeout, pitched to contact, allows his defense to make plays for him and made big pitches when he got stuck in jams. And he did that all the way up until the last pitch.”
The Warriors got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning after Kula placed a slow ground ball perfectly to the backhand side of Maloney shortstop David Stimpson. Eli Fangiullo, who walked to start the inning, came in to score.
Maloney responded with backto-back one-out singles from Tyler Duffy and Joseph Rodriguez, before loading the bases after a Windsor error. Spartans starting pitcher Ryan Killeen came to the plate looking to earn back the run he gave up the half inning before – and he did just that with a sacrifice fly to center field that tied the game at one.
The Spartans threatened with the bases loaded an inning later but were shut down scoreless after a ground out to shortstop Ryan Cramer.
Killeen finished all six innings having allowed just six hits and one earned run while striking out four.
“We’re strong,” Maloney coach Ricky Marrero said. “We’re gonna hopefully keep coming back – you never know when you’re gonna get back here. We had a really nice run; it takes a little bit of luck to get in this spot but I’m really happy with the way our kids played.”
For the third time, and the first since 1991, the state championship trophy has a spot on the bus back to Windsor.
“I’m so happy for them,” Serfass said. “Because I know how bad they wanted it, and I so badly wanted to see them get it. And they got it. They got it.”