Titans Topple Chaminade Baseball 5-4 in Extras

Ryan Walsh had been wanting a bit of redemption Thursday morning. It had been weighing on the rightfielder’s mind since the first inning against Holy Trinity – those two errors he had allowed in the first to firstbaseman Tyler Kapela and secondbaseman John Parenty – had been compounded in the second and fifth with a pair of strikeouts.

A hot shot off the bat of centerfielder Christopher Merola was headed slightly off center in the midoutfield between Walsh and Bryan Colasacco. If he made it, it would mean two outs with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth. If not, at least two would score and it would probably be the game.

Either a hero or a goat.

Walsh dove, taking a head-over-heels tumble. Somehow, someway the ball settled into his glove before his head hit the grass and was thoughtful enough to throw it into Terence Connelly at short, doubling off thirdbaseman Donald Cryspin.

Now if only they could scratch across another run, Walsh – and the rest of the Flyers – would find their own absolution that Holy Thursday.

Kapela wouldn’t have any of it.

“He’s a bulldog,” Titans head coach Bob Malandro said. “The bigger the game, the bigger he is.”

Taking the mound not only for the first time this season, but in the closer role that Malandro seems to have him pegged for, the senior righty went through the heart of the Flyer order twice, allowing only two hits while striking out five.

“I’m all right with it.” Kapela said of his closer role. “Happy to have a role on the team, the pitching staff.”

The truth was, this was getting a little repetitive. Wednesday the two teams played another eight frames and though Holy Trinity struck out 15 they still lost 2-1.

“We hadn’t been getting a big hit,” Malandro said. “Today we did.”

Joseph Romero had already given up a double to Kapela during his at-bat in the eighth and with two outs learn the lesson against Parenty, issuing an intentional walk.

Now he had two strikes against DH Anthony Rossati.

“They’re pitching him tough, a lot of breaking balls in the whole series,” Malandro said. “He fell into some hard luck but he just came through when we needed him.”

Romero knew the mistake as soon as the bat cracked. As soon as it sailed over the head of Colasacco into center, it was over 5-4 with Holy Trinity taking the series two games to one.

“Big win early in the year; Chaminade’s a good team. They gave us everything we could hande here,” adding that he was “happy to get out of here with two wins.”