Anselmo and BSP blank Hamilton Post 31
HAMILTON » If it starts getting near the end of the summer and you have not accomplished all you’ve liked, call Mike Anselmo. He seems to be an expert at making up for lost time.
The lanky senior hurled 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball and Dave Zamora got the final two outs with runners on second and third as Broad Street Park defeated Hamilton, 2-0, in Mercer County American Legion baseball at Hamilton West Wednesday night.
Anselmo missed nearly the entire high school season after getting struck by a line drive in preseason and suffering a broken leg. He got a few innings at the end of the year and has come back strong in June as he is now 3-0 for Post 313.
“I guess he’s hungry,” BSP coach Mike Petrowski said. “He pitched a few innings at the end of the year in high school. He gives me a heart attack once in a while but I’ll tell you what, he battles and he comes through.”
Anselmo allowed five hits over 6.1 innings, and the last two came in the top of the seventh when Chris Cote singled and Alex Coleman drilled a pinch-hit double to put runners at second and third with one out. Petrowski then went to Zamora, an eighth-grader.
“I trust Dave with my life and I knew he was gonna get it done,” Anselmo said.
He did just that After falling behind Joey Sacco 3-0, Zamora came back to strike him out on a high heater. That brought up the dangerous Ryan Mostrangeli, who Petrowski walked intentionally twice in BSP’s 3-2 win earlier in the year.
“I almost said ‘intentional walk’ but I didn’t,” Petrowski said. “I couldn’t put the winning run on. Zamora made good pitches, started offspeed for a strike, threw a change-up for a strike and then threw a great slider.”
The result was a strikeout to end it as BSP continues to be MCALL’s most surprising team with a 9-1 record.
“We had the right guys up, just didn’t make contact,” said manager Rick Freeman in a subdued Hamilton dugout. “We play all seven, we felt pretty good about our chances.”
As Zamora felt about his. “It’s nerve wracking but I trust my defense, trust my coaches,” Zamora said. “I feel pretty comfortable on the mound.”
Zamora actually started the game’s only scoring rally against tough-luck loser Dave Stec, getting hit by a pitch to start the second. Alex Venutolo dropped a bunt single that hugged the first base line and Brien Cardona sacrificed. Connor Luckie delivered an RBI single to start a 2-for-2 night, and Luckie and Venutolo engineered a double steal to make it 2-0.
Anselmo took it from there, as he allowed just four baserunners over the next four innings and only allowed the leadoff hitter to reach once.
“He changed speeds, kept us off balance,” Freeman said. “We had 13 outs in the air. When you’re out in front, that happens.”
Anselmo went in with a game plan.
“I was thinking with the top of the order, go off-speed pitches and then fastballs late,” he said. “And then the bottom of the order, start them with fastballs and then go to off speed.”
It worked to perfection, as Hamilton’s only real threat came in the seventh until Zamora came to the rescue.
“It’s a great feeling,” he said. “I owe it all to my teammates. Mike Anselmo held us in the game and did a great job pitching.”
And Zamora made it count.
Hamilton 000 000 0— Broad St. Park020 000 x— 0 2 2B: H: Coleman. RBI: B: Luckie. WP: Anselmo (3-0). LP: Stec. Team Records — 5 4
H (6-3), BSP (9-1).
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