CHAMPS! Chaminade Baseball Sweeps St. Dominic’s for Title

A grounder off the bat of St. Dominic’s leftfielder Nick Girardi finding its way into the glove of secondbaseman Thomas Roulis.

A scoop off a 40-foot throw, the ball hitting the rust-colored part of the carpet they call the infield at Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville barely in front of first base, finding the leather of firstbaseman Ken Ritchie’s glove.

Girardi’s foot hitting the bag a split second later.

These are the images Flyer senior Andrew Gallagher will remember just before he exploded off the mound Monday afternoon. Before he and catcher Andrew Pohalski lept into each others’ arms mid-air, before the entire Flyer bench caught up to thirdbaseman Ryan Hopke and DH Shaun Caulfield in celebrating the 4-2 win over the Bayhawks to and claim their sixteenth championship and first since 2007.

“It’s satisfying as a coach to get to this point and the kids played better and better and better at the end of the season,” said Chaminade head coach Mike Pienkos, who had decided to play for the two game sweep early, getting his closer to record the final eight outs of the game.

“He was the guy we were going to go to if it was close,” Pienkos said of Gallagher. “He was still strong, he hadn’t thrown a lot of innings.”

The Flyers (19-4), who , had held St. Dominic’s to one run through five innings on the strength of performances by lefty starter Kevin Weissheier, Brendan Mulligan and Gallagher, who gave up an opposite field home run to Bayhawk firstbaseman Spencer Biello to start the sixth.

Gallagher had come in protecting a one-run lead after St. Dominic’s had loaded the bases in the top of the fifth and one out, the first time Pienkos had come into that situation all year.

“They had a lot of trust in me coming in to the fifth inning,” Gallager said who got a strikeout and a grounder to second to end the frame. “I trust my infield enough to make any play.”

The Flyers closer would also face a critical batter the next inning in secondbaseman Vinny Orlando with centerfielder Steven Goldstein, one of the toughest outs in the league, on deck and first base open.

“If I didn’t get (him) out in the sixth inning then he comes up with the bases loaded and you’ve got to throw him pitches to hit and that could’ve been bad,” he said.

After going 2-0, Gallagher battled back to get the St. Dominic senior swinging on an outside fastball.

“In all my years, no team’s ever worked this hard,” Pienkos said.

Now they have the hardware to prove it.