St. Paul’s 21 game win streak came to an end Wednesday evening as Woodland defeated the Falcons 6-4 in Waterbury.
Starter Tyler Giambra picked up the win for the Hawks and teammate Michael Belcher got the save.
Brendan Foley, who had pitched a perfect game against the Hawks 2 weeks ago, took the loss for the Falcons. With the win, Woodland advances to the NVL finals and will play Holy Cross in the championship game tonight.
St. Paul scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the 1st inning. With one out, Ryan Daniels bunted for a base hit, stole 2nd, and advanced to 3rd on a balk. Daniels scored on Casey Cerruto’s SAC fly to right, and St. Paul led 1-0.
But the lead was short lived. Michael Belcher led off the top of the 2nd with a single up the middle. Tyler Lato followed with a home run over the left field fence, and Woodland led 2-1. Foley struck out the next 2 batters, but then walked Anthony Marsala and Croy Mastropietro. Tyler Giambra’s grounder was misplayed in the infield allowing Marsala to score. And Ryan Montini’s RBI single drove in Mastropietro making it 4-1.
St Paul cut the lead to 4-2 in the 3rd inning on a single by Devin Kulas and an RBI double by Mario Izzo.
Michael Belcher pushed the lead back to 3 for Woodland with an RBI double in the 4th. In the top of the 5th, Matt Deegan led off with a single, stole 2nd, advanced to 3rd on a groundout, and scored on an infield error making it 6-2.
In the bottom of the 5th, Belcher relieved Giambra on the mound. Kulas led off with a walk and advanced to 3rd on Cerruto’s single. Kulas scored on a wild pitch making the score 6-3.
In the bottom of the 7th, St Paul started a rally with singles by Cal Chance and Kulas. Daniels reached on an infield error, and the bases were loaded with no outs. But St. Paul was only able to push one run across on Cerruto’s SAC fly. Belcher recorded the other 2 outs on strikeouts, and the final was 6-4.
Of Note
For Woodland
Michael Belcher was 2 for 4 with a double, 1 RBI, and 1 run scored
Tyler Lato was 1 for 4 with a 2 run homer
For St Paul
Devin Kulas was 2 for 3 with 1 run scored
5/25/2022
at Municipal Stadium
R H E
Woodland (17-5) 6 6 2
St Paul (21-1) 4 7 2
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