Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Chiefs rally to reach semifinal
Cardinal Gibbons junior pitcher Cole Cozzolino shook off an early 2-0 deficit and locked down St. Brendan, throwing a complete game and allowing his Chiefs to rally past St. Brendan 3-2 on Wednesday and into the 4A baseball regional semifinals.
The Chiefs advance to Saturday’s regional semifinals, where they will host Island Coast. The Gators beat the Bonita Springs Bullsharks 10-0 on Wednesday night.
“This was his first start of the playoffs,” Cardinal Gibbons coach Jason Hamilton said of Cozzolino. “He has not started that much this year. He has been a little bit injured and stuff, but we wanted to go with the hot hand, and he was the hot hand from [doing well out off the bullpen] last week.
“He rewarded us today.” Senior shortstop Aidan Hernandez did too. He authored the decisive RBI for the Chiefs in the bottom of the sixth inning with a low hit into center field.
“He has been preaching a good middle approach all week long,” Hamilton said. “In batting practice [he was going with a] middle approach, and he was saying to everybody, ‘Stay middle, stay middle,’ the entire game.
“I am glad that he practiced what he preached.”
Cozzolino finished with four strikeouts, including one in the game’s last at-bat that punctuated a three-up, three-down top of the seventh.
That was a stark contrast to how he began the quarterfinal, as Cozzolino hit Sabes outfielder Joseph Valdes with a pitch in the opening at-bat before finding himself in a basesloaded situation that produced two runs for St. Brendan.
“He is a mentally tough kid, he is a physically tough
kid,” Hamilton said. “There was no way we were taking
him out of that game early on.”
An error jump-started Cardinal Gibbons’ rally in the bottom of the second, as senior catcher Trent Shields hit into a potentially inning-ending double play. Sabres shortstop JC Garcia overthrew his toss to second, however, and that allowed the Chiefs to get on the board.
Senior designated hitter David Bauer tied the game two innings later, earning a walk in a bases-loaded situation with two outs and the count at 3-2.
Hernandez produced the winning hit in the sixth and Cozzolino took care of business after that, prompting celebratory jumps for joy from the home team while leaving at least one player on the visitors in tears.
“I would imagine after that start he might have another start in his near future,” Hamilton said of Cozzolino. “Hopefully we can get that far.”