Wildcats tame the Blue Devils to advance

DURHAM — Pain and relief were the feelings of the day after Seymour outlasted Coginchaug 3-2 in nine innings in a CIAC Class M second-round baseball game on Thursday.

Seymour (16-6) was happy to leave town as a tournament quarterfinalist knowing it failed to close out Coginchaug (15-7) in the seventh and allowed the Blue Devils to load the bases in the ninth. Coginchaug was down to its final out before mounting both rallies.

“Winning this one was an absolute relief, without question,” Seymour coach Jeff Gilbert said. “That game took a few minutes off my life.”

Seymour senior righthander Austin DeRosa went 8 1/3 innings (and 112 pitches) for the victory, and Christian DeJarnette got one out for the save.

Except for two pitches, DeRosa was in command — methodical, in the strike zone a lot and working quickly. He allowed one earned run, four hits and one walk and struck out seven. He went to a twostrike count on 17 batters, with only three reaching base. Of his 25 outs recorded, 12 were on ground balls.

“He’s our horse on the hill. We trust him in any situation and that’s why I stuck with him today,” Gilbert said. “He makes (opponents) hit his pitches. He pitches to contact.”

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils left Helmuth H. Brown Field for the final time as a team overcome with disappointment. Their offense did not produce the momentum needed to get ahead and their defense made mistakes in critical spots. The combination spelled defeat.

“This was a team I expected to go far,” Coginchaug coach Mark Basil said. “We had our opportunities to score, but for whatever reason we didn’t make solid contact today. Every inning it felt like (the bats) would just pop, like we’d find a spark and the hits would just follow.” They never did. Coginchaug forced extra innings by the skin of its teeth. DeRosa got two groundouts and could have sealed the game with a strikeout of Connor Rulnick, but Rulnick reached on a passed ball. Basil then called on Colby Pascarelli to pinch hit, and the freshman drove a 1-1 fastball to the gap in right-center to score Rulnick.

Seymour’s rally in the ninth started with a single by Brendon Ellsworth. DeRosa dropped a bunt to the right side and ended up reaching when John John Jose, who relieved starter MacGuire O’Sullivan in the seventh, threw wide of first. Ellsworth moved up to third on the error and scored when Gilbert called for another bunt, this one a

successful sacrifice by Ethan Szerszen.

Gilbert said he knew Coginchaug played in many close, low-scoring games this season, crediting the team’s pitching for it, and said his intention was to push across a run any way possible.

“We knew we had to score early and often. We did the early part,” Gilbert said. “We knew it would be a tight game.”

Seymour went the

squeeze route in the first, but DeJarnette’s bunt was fielded cleanly by O’Sullivan and he got Zach Edwards on a close play at the plate. However, with one out and runners on the corners, a potential doubleplay grounder went through Devon Geoghegan’s legs at second, giving Seymour the lead. The Wildcats took a 2-0 lead in the second on Nick Marchetti’s solo home run to center.

Coginchaug’s first hit of the game — and first batted ball to leave the infield — came in the fourth when

Luke Garofalo tripled to deep center and scored on an errant relay throw. Except for that moment, the Blue Devils could not string hits together to mount a charge.

“Like, where’s that one guy to light that spark? Luke’s triple, I thought that was the hit that would get us going,” Basil said.

DeRosa averaged about 14 pitches an inning and said he never felt fatigued.

“I didn’t feel my arm anymore. The adrenaline kicked in and I knew everything was working for me,” he said. “I couldn’t

feel anything — in a good way.”

O’Sullivan, who was “under the weather” prior to the game, powered through 111 pitches over 6 2/3 innings. The senior allowed one unearned run on seven hits and struck out eight.

“MacGuire was not MacGuire to start the game but he got through it,” Basil said, adding, “You’ve got to put up more runs than we did, but that’s baseball. Their pitcher threw a lot of strikes and their defense made all the plays. That’s what good teams do.”