Stamford walks off with win over North Haven

STAMFORD — Joey Skarad had already played catcher for nine innings on an oppressively hot day and had enough of it.

To avoid having to go out for the 10th inning and more time in the gear, in the sun, Skarad did the one thing he could do. He hit a twoout, walkoff home run, giving Stamford a 53 win over North Haven in Pod G of the Southern Division Sectional of the Senior American Legion state tournament.

“That’s the biggest (home run) I ever hit,” Skarad said. “I was thinking that we had Jaden (Dawkins) on and I was trying to drive something hard. I didn’t really expect that to happen. I just wanted to hit something in the gap to get him home and get us home.”

Stamford moves on to the Pod final Wednesday at Cubeta Stadium.

North Haven will face the winner of the Orange/Oakville in an elimination game Tuesday in North Haven.

The winner of the Pod advances to the Southern Division Super Regional.

Dawkins led off the bottom of the ninth by reaching on an error.

After two batters failed to move Dawkins along, Skarad came to the plate.

After taking the first pitch high and tight, Skarad unloaded, sending the ball deep to left and over the wall for the win.

North Haven had a golden opportunity to win in the top of the eighth, loading the bases with no outs on a walk, a single by Kevin Lucey and an intentional walk to David Christoforo.

Stamford pitcher Matt Wirz was able to escape the jam, getting a force out at home and finishing the inning with backtoback strikeouts.

“It was a good game all around, on both sides but we had four innings of opportunity in this game where we didn’t cash in and that, right there, is the game,” North Haven coach Tim Binkoski said. “Going against the No. 1 seed and they gave us opportunities but we failed to take advantage of them. I felt like we should have had the game in seven but we didn’t and it went to extras and it didn’t go our way.”

Stamford scored first with two runs in the bottom of the third with TJ Wainwright driving in one with a double down the leftfield line and Reid Gesualdi plating another with a single to right.

North Haven wasted no time tying the game on a tworun blast to right by Christoforo in the top of the fourth.

Stamford went back up 32 in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly to centerfield by Dawkins, scoring Shane Hackett from third.

North Haven would tie it in the fifth.

Owen Silk singled to right and Mason Balmer followed with a single of his own to right but the ball got past the rightfielder for an error, allowing Silk to sprint all the way around the bases and score.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Jaden Dawkins, Stamford: The leftfielder bunted for a single, scored two runs and drove in another for Stamford.

QUOTABLE

“(Skarad) is a competitor. He got a good pitch to hit and he turned on it,” Stamford coach Kevin Murray said. “That’s a great baseball game. Hats off to North Haven. They battled, their kids threw strikes and (Christoforo) is a gamechanger. Anybody makes a mistake, you are going to lose that game. We had to gamble and we did by walking (Christoforo) to load the bases with no outs. It was a huge gamble but it paid off and worked out for us, today.”