The Wolcott Eagles picked up a come from behind 4-3 win over the visiting St. Paul Falcons on this opening day of the 2024 season. Reliever David Cardinale was the winning pitcher for Wolcott while reliever Dom Napoletano took the loss for St Paul. Mike McCormack picked up the save.

After a scoreless top of the first, Wolcott scored in the bottom of the frame to take the early 1-0 lead. After singles by David Cardinale and Logan Szep, Ben Bianchi walked to load the bases. Then an errant pickoff throw to third went into left field allowing Cardinale to score that first run of the game.

A single by Jay DeRosa after walks to Kyle Wilson and Cooper Sima allowed St. Paul to load the bases in the top of the second. A walk to Keaton Kroll plated 1 run, and a ground out by Logan Rembish scored a second giving St Paul a 2-1 lead. 

Wolcott tied the score in the bottom of the third inning. Drew Rocca reached second safely on an infield error, and Nick Kleinschmidt drove him home with a single.

In the top of the fourth, Kroll led off the inning and was hit by a pitch. Kroll later scored on Cal Chance’s ground out, and St. Paul recaptured the lead 3-2.

The score remained 3-2 until the bottom of the sixth. Cardinale singled up the middle and Rocca walked to put two on with no outs. Szep followed with his third hit of the afternoon driving in Cardinale and knotting things up at 3. Then Rocca scored on Bianchi’s RBI ground out to give Wolcott the 4-3 lead at the end of six innings.

Wolcott then called upon Mike McCormack to close out the game. McCormack retired all three batters to face him, including two strikeouts, to preserve the Wolcott win.

Of Note:

For St Paul – no players had multiple hits or an extra base hit

For Wolcott — Logan Szep was 3 for 4 with 1 RBI and David Cardinale was 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored

                        1  2  3  4  5  6  7   R   H   E

St Paul (0-1)      0  2  0  1  0  0  0   3    2   2

Wolcott (1-0)      1  0  1  0  0  2  X  4    6   2

Pitching                    W/L  IP  K  BB  HB  H  R  ER

St Paul

   Logan Rembish            3   5    3     1    3   2    1

   Brian Anderson             2   0    3    0     2   1   1

   Dom Napoletano     L    1   0   1     0    1    1   1

Wolcott

   Logan Szep                   3   3    5    0    1    2   2

   David Cardinale      W   3   1    2    1    1    1   1

   Mike McCormack    S    1   2    0    0    0    0   0

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