The Saint Lawrence Celtics and Summit Preparatory Huskies slugged it out in an offensive battle that saw the Celtics pick up a come-from-behind 15-14 win at Washington Park on March 17.
“It was a big comeback,” said head coach Kevin Hashimoto. “We struggled early on and we got off to a good start. Then, in the middle of the game, we kind of hit a low but our guys are really resilient. They come out and they’re down and they keep focused and they stay in the game. They worked hard and came out with a win.”
The afternoon began roughly for starting pitcher, senior Brandon Cole, who walked the first three Husky batters and threw 12 balls before finding the strike zone. The difficult start didn’t deter the Celtics though, as the team fought back from a 0-2 deficit to take a 3-2 lead at the end of the first.
Saint Lawrence exploded in the second, leading off the inning with a double from freshman David Arellanes and scoring at every opportunity to take a 9-2 lead into the third. Summit Prep was not interested in going down easily. They, too, erupted in their next at bat, racking up six runs and forcing a pitching change that put sophomore Brandon Kubogamell on the mound. The Celtics were only able to muster two additional runs to regain some of the traction lost by the Huskies’ surge, but it wasn’t enough.
The fourth inning was all Summit Prep. Fielding errors and poorly placed pitches turned the outing into a hitting clinic. Before long, the Huskies had scored five times and took a two- run lead – one that was extended to three in the top of the sixth.
With only six outs left, the Celtics were losing valuable time with each pitch, but there was still fight left in the team, and with two outs and runners on second and third, junior Mikey Camarda pulled a ball into deep center, notching a triple and getting Saint Lawrence to within one at 14-13.
“He’s the heart and soul of this team,” said Hashimoto “He absolutely loves this game and he will fight to the last out and that’s exactly what he did. He had a great at bat, and got us back in the game and scored a ball up and put it in the gap for us and really got us back into this.”
The final inning saw sophomore Brandon Lee walk and steal second. Freshman Chris Hart hit a double to center field to score Lee and tie the game. Freshman Andrea Duenas bunted for a hit that moved Hart to third base. The Huskies then walked Arellanes to load the bases, and it was up to senior Jacob Revallier to bring home a victory. Revallier made contact and hit a fly ball into left field that was deep enough for Hart to tag up and score, giving Saint Lawrence the walk-off win.
“I think we never said die,” said Hashimoto. “We always battled. We’ve been down in a lot of games and we’ve always battled back and that’s something that is the theme of this team. We might be down but we’re never out.”
Saint Lawrence hosts Mid-Peninsula on March 18 (after press time) and Jewish Community on March 25 at Washington Park.
