New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Law edges Hand in high-scoring SCC tilt
MADISON — It’s sure wasn’t pretty, but it was like a Southern Connecticut Conference baseball game out of the past.
“It was kind of an old school SCC baseball game,” Jonathan Law coach Greg Simler said after the Lawmen survived a late rally to take an 11-10 victory over Hand in a SCC Hammonasset Division battle Tuesday afternoon. “You score a couple runs and we score a couple runs. It was back and forth, but we’re feeling pretty good about getting on the bus with a
W.”
But it came down to the bottom of the seventh and both teams having gone deep into their bullpens with Law (10-5) holding the slim 11-10 edge. Hard throwing righthander Mike Cosmas came on for the Lawmen and set down the first two Hand hitters rather easily, but then w
as wild as he walked two batters to put the winning runs on base. After the second pitch to Axl Pildner was wild, Simler noticed
Cosmas looking at him in the dugout and Simler went to the mound and pulled him out of the game.
“It just didn’t feel right, so I went out to check on him and brought in someone else,” Simler said.
That someone else was Brian Goglia, who hadn’t thrown a varsity pitch all season.
“We still had a few arms left, but he had warmed up already,” Simler said.
Goglia made it even more interesting when his first pitch hit Pildner, moving the tying run to second,
Goglia was able to settle down and was the beneficiary of a close call on a 3-1 count to Ben Kuja. The next pitch was high and outside, but was too close to take and Kuja missed it to end the game.
“After I hit the first batter, I had to throw strikes and do my best to get them out,” Goglia said. “It came down to the wire.”
Hand took an early lead in the bottom of the first when Kuja singled and scored on an error. But it would be a short-lived edge for the Tigers as Cody Dineson singled in the run and another scored on the throw to the infield to give