TRUMBULL — After the Woodland baseball team earned a comeback, 4-2 win over Naugatuck Valley League rival Holy Cross in Saturday’s Class M qualifying round, the Hawks earned a first-round game against top-ranked St. Joseph.
The Cadets scored three runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back as they ended Woodland’s season with a 9-2 victory in Tuesday’s first round.
St. Joseph knocked four hits in the first, including an RBI single by Tyler Matakevich and a two-run double by Alexis Guadalupe, to immediately take control of the game.
The Cadets added another run in the second when Jerry Kramer scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
The Hawks began to rally in the third as Tanner Kingsley led off with a double to left. After a pair of strikeouts, Anthony Scirpo smashed a two-out single to center, scoring Kingsley for Woodland’s first run.
Errors were costly for Woodland, as five miscues caused five of St. Joseph’s nine runs to be unearned, including all four of the Cadets’ scores in the bottom of the fourth.
St. Joseph blew open the game in the fourth thanks in part to a two-out error in left field that allowed the first run to score. The Cadets strung together three more hits to push across three more runs to take a commanding, 8-1 advantage.
Woodland managed its second run in the sixth on Jack DeBiase’s RBI single to center that plated Scirpo.
Scirpo was 2-for-3 on the day, pushing his team-leading hit total to 31. Ryan Mariotti, Sean Deegan, DeBiase, and Kingsley accounted for the rest of Woodland’s six hits.
Billy Alfiere allowed four earned runs in five innings of work. He allowed 10 hits while walking three and striking out two. Brian Langdon retired the side in the sixth.
Scirpo and DeBiase were largely responsible for Woodland’s win in Saturday’s qualifying round against Holy Cross.
With the Hawks trailing, 2-0, in the bottom of the fifth, DeBiase stroked a two-run single through the hole to left, allowing Deegan and Mariotti to score to tie the game.
Next inning, Scirpo knocked a two-run hit of his own, this one a liner to right to plate David Uhl and Deegan to give Woodland a 4-2 lead.
Mike Masulli pitched a complete-game five-hitter for Woodland to earn his fourth victory of the season. He allowed just two runs on a two-out single by Kyle Pelkey in the fourth while walking four and striking out 10. Masulli fanned 24 Crusaders in two starts against Cross on the season.
Scirpo finished the season with a team-leading .419 average and 20 runs scored. DeBiase finished at a .385 clip with a team-high 23 RBI. DeBiase finished his Woodland career third in average (.364), hits (67), stolen bases (24), slugging (.549) while becoming the all-time leader in on-base percentage (.526) and doubles (21).
