Five-run fifth inning lifts Hopewell past BSP

HOPEWELL TWP. » Tom Pecora praised Dominick Gambino’s heart, and it was Pecora’s bat that got that heart pumping into the victory column.

Pecora’s RBI single drove in the go-ahead run in a five-run fifth inning as Hopewell Valley Post 339 took a 5 -2 win over Broad Street Park in Mercer County American Legion League baseball Wednesday night. Post 339’s third straight victory pulled HoVal (8-2) within one game of first-place BSP (11-3), which has lost consecutive games for the first time this season.

Post 313 got off to a strong start, touching Gambino for two runs in the top of the first. Kyle Harrington drilled an RBI double off a hanging curveball and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

“I kind of just wanted to get that over,” Gambino said. “I didn’t really think he was going to swing first-pitch curveball so I threw a get-me-over curve. He put a nice swing on it and it ended up hurting me. After that I was able to settle down.”

Indeed he did. After allowing another hit in the inning, Gambino retired seven straight and 11 of the next 12 as he got Broad Street on lazy fly balls and popups. While some hurlers might have wilted after a bad first, the right-hander just got better

“I felt good,” Gambino said. “I wasn’t really locating my pitches that well in the first inning. I came out in the second inning, threw a couple pitches in warm-ups. I started attacking the zone and I was able to let them hit the ball, let the defense make plays.

“I was throwing a little bit of two-seam, a little changeup. They were getting under my pitches a little bit. I was just trying to keep them off balance.”

Gambino’s ability to bounce back from adversity impressed his teammate.

“I think it speaks a lot about his heart as a pitcher,” Pecora said. “He goes out there and sticks with it, keeps going. He knew we were gonna make the plays for him.”

And Pecora knew the offense was going to score runs for him.

“We always put up a good amount of runs, so two runs by them wasn’t much for us,” he said. “We felt pretty confident. We were hitting the ball well early in the game so we felt confident it was going to start finding holes and it did later in the game. I wasn’t really worried at all.”

Andy Blake led off the fifth with a single and Luke Blair doubled to put runners on second and third. Cameron Cane’s grounder was booted, plating Blake. Cane stole second and Adam Wijaya’s sacrifice fly tied it and sent Cane to third. With the infield in, Pecora poked an RBI single to right field and later scored on a double steal.

“I knew the infield was in, I just tried to punch it through to the right side,” he said. “I got a low, outside curveball so it wasn’t too hard to just punch it through. I just worried about getting the barrel on the ball.”

HoVal manager Mike Coryell got his bullpen up but it wasn’t necessary. After allowing a leadoff double in the sixth, Gambino retired the final six to finish with a six-hitter with one walk and four strikeouts.

It raised his record to 3-0 after missing nearly all of the high school season with arm issues.

“I think it’s pretty good now,” he said. “It’s sore after I throw. But I’ve had a couple complete games so I feel good. I’m going out there competing, trying to get the ball over the plate and let my fielders make the plays.”

Broad St. Park Hopewell 2B— 200 000 0— 000 050 x—

BSP: Harrington, Bruschini, H: Blair; BSP: Harrington, H: Cane, Wijaya, Pecora. Gambino (3-0); McKenzie. BSP (11-3), H (8-2).

WP— Team Records — LP— 2 5 6 7 2 1 RBIs —

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