PITCHING AND DEFENSES RULE
AS PACE OUTLASTS BENTLEY IN MARATHON
COTONE'S 15TH INNING WALK-OFF HIT ENDS CLASSIC NE-10 GAME
PLEASANTVILLE, NY - Joe Cotone (Yorktown Heights, NY/Lakeland) ended a marathon game at Finnerty Field as his shot in the left center gap in the 15th inning gave the Setters their ninth conference win in 10 games as Pace outlasted Bentley College 3-2. The Setters improve to 19-10 overall and 9-1 in the NE-10, while the Falcons drop to 10-19 and 5-9 in conference play.
Bentley jumped out to an early lead as Garrett Stenhouse (Warwick, RI) led off the second with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mike DeCoste (Chelmsford, MA). The Falcons took advantage of two Setter errors in the third as Brett Damato (Commack, NY) and Ricardo Sullivan (Wayland, MA) both reached on errors to start the innings, putting runners at first and third. Jason Cusumano (Port Chester, NY) grounded into a fielder's choice to score Damato and a 2-0 Bentley lead.
The Setters rallied in their half of the seventh inning as Jack Cawley (Bronx, NY/Iona Prep) singled with one out, moved to second on a balk and reached third on a groundout. Cawley scored as Cotone tripled down the right field line. Cotone scored the equalizer as Aaron Zrenda's (Niantic, CT/Chaffee Loomis Prep) grounder to short stop was misplayed to get the Setters even at 2-2.
The teams remained scoreless for the next seven innings as the Setter bullpen was lights-out behind four innings each by Frank Luongo (West Harrison, NY/West Harrison) and Mackenzie King (Blairstown, NY/North Warren). The Setter offense threatened in four of the seven innings, putting runners in scoring position but could not come up with the clutch hit. Pace broke through in the 15th inning as Cawley doubled down the right field line with one out and stole third. Following a strikeout, Cotone's drive to the left-center gap fell and Cawley scored easily to give the Setters an exhilarating and hard-fought epic win.
Cawley had three hits on the day and scored twice, while stealing three bases. Cotone accounted for all the Setter runs as he had two RBIs and scored one run. On the hill for Pace, Zach Dayton (North Falmouth, MA/North Falmouth) tossed seven innings, allowing six hits and two runs (one earned), while picking up five strikeouts. The bullpen took over, dominating the rest of the game as Luongo struck out three in his four innings and King (2-1) fanned seven in four innings.
The Setters return to action on Thursday, April 9 when they will
travel to Waltham, MA to take on Bentley College in a Northeast-10
Conference game scheduled for a 3:30 pm first pitch.
