St. Paul earns win in back-and-forth battle with Lewis Mills, 10-9, on walk-off sacrifice fly

white baseball ball on brown leather baseball mittPexel photo

Posted By: David Fortier April 10, 2024

The St. Paul Falcons earned a 10-9 victory over the Lewis Mills Spartans with a walk-off win in Bristol Tuesday afternoon. Coby Dagata picked up his second win of the season in relief for St. Paul while reliever Connor Crosbie took the loss for Lewis Mills.

Lewis Mills took advantage of walks to Matt Micari, Connor Crosbie, Tim Maldonado and Matt Chirumbolo to score in the top of the first without the benefit of a hit and took an early 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the frame, Captain Cal Chance sent a 2-1 pitch over the right field fence, and the scored was tied 1-1.

In the top of the second, Alex Maldonado and Remy Gorack had back-to-back singles to open the frame. An infield error allowed Jeremy Simonds to reach safely while Maldonado scored. A couple more errors, a couple more walks, and a 2 RBI single by Cole Varano allowed Lewis Mills to bat around and take a 6-1 lead.

In the bottom of the third, it was St. Paul’s turn to bat around. A walk to Keaton Kroll, a single by Jay DeRosa, and a walk to Logan Rembish loaded the bases with no outs. Chance then walked driving in Kroll, and AJ Corrado hit a sacrifice fly to left driving in DeRosa. Coby Dagata singled to reload the bases for Nate Barrett who singled driving in Rembish and Chance. Lewis Mills led 6-5 after three innings. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Kroll singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Jay DeRosa then walked and stole second. Cal Chance’s hard-hit grounder was fielded cleanly, but then thrown away allowing both Kroll and DeRosa to score and Chance to advance to second. Corrado followed with an RBI single, and St. Paul led 8-6.

Falcon reliever Brian Anderson held Lewis Mills scoreless over the third, fourth and fifth innings, but ran into trouble in the top of the sixth. Tim Maldonado singled and Chirumbolo doubled to give Mills men on second and third with no outs. Brett Harding followed with a 2 RBI single, and the score was tied 8-8. Dom Napoletano relieved Anderson on the mound and retired all three batters that faced him.

St. Paul recaptured the lead in the bottom of the sixth on Chance’s second hit and third RBI of the game. St. Paul led 9-8 going into the last inning.

St. Paul brought in Coby Dagata to close out the game. Dagata struck out the first two batters to face him. Then Cole Varano hit a hard-line drive to center field. Jay DeRosa tried to make a diving catch, but the ball hit the grass and scooted past him. Varano reached third safely with a triple, and later scored on a wild pitch to tie the score at 9-9. Dagata struck out the next batter to end the threat.

In the bottom of the seventh, Dagata led off with a single, and was replaced by pinch runner Nate Cravanzola. Barrett followed with a bunt single, and Mike DeRosa walked to load the bases with no outs. Then designated hitter Cooper Sima hit a fly ball down the left field line which was caught, but allowed Cravanzola to score the winning run on the sacrifice fly.

Of Note:

For Lewis Mills

Cole Varano was 2 for 4 with a triple, 2 RBIs, and 2 runs scored

Brett Harding was 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs

Jeremy Simonds was 2 for 5 with 1 RBI and 1 run scored

Matt Chirumbolo was 1 for 2 with a double, 2 RBIs, and1 run scored

For St. Paul

Cal Chance was 2 for 3 with a home run, 3 RBIs, and 3 runs scored

Nate Barrett was 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs

Coby Dagata was 2 for 4

at St Paul Catholic High School

                             1  2  3  4  5  6  7   R   H   E

Lewis Mills (1-2)   1  5  0  0  0  2  1   9   10   3

St Paul (3-1)         1  0  4  3  0  1  1  10   9   3

1 out when the winning run scored

Pitching                    W/L  IP   K  BB  HB  H  R  ER

Lewis Mills

   Matt Micari                    2.1  1   3     1    4   5    5

   Gage Kosak                  3.2  3   1     1    3   4    2

   Connor Crosbie       L     .1   0   1     0    2   1    1

St. Paul

   Logan Rembish            1.2   3   6     0    3   6    3

   Brian Anderson             3.1   5   3     0    6   2    2

   Dom Napoletano            1    2    0    0    0   0    0

   Coby Dagata           W    1    3    0    0    1   1   1

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