ROME - The Auburn baseball team finally found the one obstacle this postseason that it couldn't overcome - itself.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Auburn baseball players walk off the field after shaking hands with Utica Proctor players after the Maroons' lost 4-3 in the Section III, Class AA championship game at DeLutis Field in Rome, Tuesday.
Auburn baseball players walk off the field after shaking hands with Utica Proctor players after the Maroons' lost 4-3 in the Section III, Class AA championship game at DeLutis Field in Rome, Tuesday.
The one negative statistic the Maroons managed to cut down on this season is the one thing that came back to bite them in the end. Auburn recorded five errors as Utica Proctor earned the Section III, Class AA title in a 4-3 stunner at Larry DeLutis Field in Rome, Tuesday.
“It's almost unexplainable,” Raiders coach Dave Guido said. “We wanted to get a couple of wins in (the playoffs), because we're very young, but we've started playing well and things just started to fall into place for us.”
The senior-laden Maroons, on the other hand, didn't have much fall in their favor during the game.
“Sometimes things just don't work out,” Auburn coach TJ Gamba said. “It's the microcosm of life. (Utica) battled, they scraped, they hung in there, and their pitcher threw a heck of a game. We had our chances.”
Despite earning a No. 10 seed in the tournament, the Raiders proved to be the high school baseball equivalent of the New York Giants this season - an underachieving team in the regular season that took their postseason tour on the road, beating three of the sections' top teams to earn a championship.
After upsetting No. 7 Watertown in the first round, Utica edged second-seeded Rome Free Academy in the quarterfinals, blanked No. 3 Liverpool in the semifinals before defeating Auburn, the top seed, for their final act.
“All three of those teams are excellent teams,” Guido said. “We had to really play to beat them, it wasn't as if we were going to walk in and beat any of them.”
Widely recognized as one of Class AA's best one-win pitchers, Raiders starter Joe Perrotta saved his second win of the season for his best. After suffering six losses during the regular season - one in a 5-4 decision against Auburn a month ago - Perrotta got his first win over RFA in the quarterfinals before throwing 10 strikeouts in the complete game effort Tuesday.
“I could be 0-6 right now and it wouldn't matter,” he said. “As long as we won today. When we lost to them the first time, we made so many mistakes, but this redemption, right now, feels good.”
Behind Perrotta, the Raiders' infield saw problems of their own, scattering three errors that led to all three Auburn runs.
Shortstop Sean Redmond bobbled a playable ball to allow Maroons' leadoff batter Matt Wild to reach base safely in the first. Two batters later, Steve Komanecky belted one of Auburn's only four hits and knocked Wild in to give his team their only lead.
For the second straight game, the Maroons managed to stay away from the big inning defensively, as the Raiders scored one run in each of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but just one was earned, as bobbled balls, overthrows and missed catches haunted the CNYCL American league champions.
“We've talked about this last year and in our team discussions this season,” Gamba said. “At this level, we have to shut teams down and play defense and make those plays. If we don't make all those errors, they probably don't score those runs.”
Auburn managed to answer the call in the third and fourth innings, scoring Tim Locastro and Bob Buckley, respectively, after Raiders first baseman Mike Scotellaro and Perrotta both made off-target throws. The one run the Maroons could not respond to was right fielder Jacob Henry's, who crossed home on a rare Eric Conway wild pitch. Overall, Conway also had a solid outing, chucking eight strikeouts, while allowing two walks, a hit batter and eight hits.
“He's a battler,” Gamba said. “He threw well and did more than enough to win the game.”
Like the singles that ventured into the outfield during the game (seven of the Raiders' hits remained in the infield), Auburn's chances to come back came few and far between. Maroons athletic third baseman Anthony Siracusa drove a ball far into the right field grass with one out in the sixth inning for the game's sole extra-base hit, but the joy was short-lived. Siracusa's hesitation after rounding second on what could have earned the team a triple, instead gave Raiders right fielder Henry the time to find Redmond, his cut-off man, who in turn threw a dart to Ryan Donovan at third base for the out.
“It would have been nice to have someone on third then and that's what I was trying to do - get him over there,” Gamba said. “They did a nice job getting that cut and he did hesitate after he rounded second, but again, that's the way it goes sometimes. You have to roll the dice once in a while and we did.”
When Nick Ventura battled for a walk in the seventh, it was the last time the Maroons put a runner on base. Perrotta fanned three in the inning as the Raiders swarmed the mound to celebrate.
“This is just awesome,” Perrotta said. “Everybody doubted us in the beginning. In the beginning of the year, we lost so many people, but you know what, coach wouldn't let us give up. It's crazy.”
Compared to Utica's nine, Auburn left just three runners stranded all night. Unlike their two previous playoff wins over Baldwinsville and Fayetteville-Manlius when they tallied over 10 hits in each game, the Maroons simply couldn't get a break against Perrotta.
“We left it on the field,” Gamba said. “It just didn't work out our way. We have nothing to hang our heads about, (Utica) is a good team. We can replay the game and have the 'what ifs,' but I could have had the sixth number in lotto last night and I wouldn't have to worry about a lot of things right now. That's the game of baseball. It's a funny game, sometimes you get the breaks and sometimes you don't. When you have more errors than runs, that's usually a bad sign.”
With their 17-8 season now closed down, the Maroons will have plenty of chances to reflect on an incredible season. Even with 10 talented seniors graduating, Gamba and assistant coach Tom Napoli have, in two years, built a program that has restored pride to Auburn baseball.
“I'm proud of this team, they had a great year,” Gamba said. “These kids really stood up to the challenges made from our coaching staff - meeting them and exceeding them. They're a fine bunch of young gentleman and this game today is a big step for our program. I love these guys - they got to experience a lot of things this year that they didn't before and this is something that no one will be able to take from them.”
Raiders 4
Maroons 3
“It's almost unexplainable,” Raiders coach Dave Guido said. “We wanted to get a couple of wins in (the playoffs), because we're very young, but we've started playing well and things just started to fall into place for us.”
The senior-laden Maroons, on the other hand, didn't have much fall in their favor during the game.
“Sometimes things just don't work out,” Auburn coach TJ Gamba said. “It's the microcosm of life. (Utica) battled, they scraped, they hung in there, and their pitcher threw a heck of a game. We had our chances.”
Despite earning a No. 10 seed in the tournament, the Raiders proved to be the high school baseball equivalent of the New York Giants this season - an underachieving team in the regular season that took their postseason tour on the road, beating three of the sections' top teams to earn a championship.
After upsetting No. 7 Watertown in the first round, Utica edged second-seeded Rome Free Academy in the quarterfinals, blanked No. 3 Liverpool in the semifinals before defeating Auburn, the top seed, for their final act.
“All three of those teams are excellent teams,” Guido said. “We had to really play to beat them, it wasn't as if we were going to walk in and beat any of them.”
Widely recognized as one of Class AA's best one-win pitchers, Raiders starter Joe Perrotta saved his second win of the season for his best. After suffering six losses during the regular season - one in a 5-4 decision against Auburn a month ago - Perrotta got his first win over RFA in the quarterfinals before throwing 10 strikeouts in the complete game effort Tuesday.
“I could be 0-6 right now and it wouldn't matter,” he said. “As long as we won today. When we lost to them the first time, we made so many mistakes, but this redemption, right now, feels good.”
Behind Perrotta, the Raiders' infield saw problems of their own, scattering three errors that led to all three Auburn runs.
Shortstop Sean Redmond bobbled a playable ball to allow Maroons' leadoff batter Matt Wild to reach base safely in the first. Two batters later, Steve Komanecky belted one of Auburn's only four hits and knocked Wild in to give his team their only lead.
For the second straight game, the Maroons managed to stay away from the big inning defensively, as the Raiders scored one run in each of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but just one was earned, as bobbled balls, overthrows and missed catches haunted the CNYCL American league champions.
“We've talked about this last year and in our team discussions this season,” Gamba said. “At this level, we have to shut teams down and play defense and make those plays. If we don't make all those errors, they probably don't score those runs.”
Auburn managed to answer the call in the third and fourth innings, scoring Tim Locastro and Bob Buckley, respectively, after Raiders first baseman Mike Scotellaro and Perrotta both made off-target throws. The one run the Maroons could not respond to was right fielder Jacob Henry's, who crossed home on a rare Eric Conway wild pitch. Overall, Conway also had a solid outing, chucking eight strikeouts, while allowing two walks, a hit batter and eight hits.
“He's a battler,” Gamba said. “He threw well and did more than enough to win the game.”
Like the singles that ventured into the outfield during the game (seven of the Raiders' hits remained in the infield), Auburn's chances to come back came few and far between. Maroons athletic third baseman Anthony Siracusa drove a ball far into the right field grass with one out in the sixth inning for the game's sole extra-base hit, but the joy was short-lived. Siracusa's hesitation after rounding second on what could have earned the team a triple, instead gave Raiders right fielder Henry the time to find Redmond, his cut-off man, who in turn threw a dart to Ryan Donovan at third base for the out.
“It would have been nice to have someone on third then and that's what I was trying to do - get him over there,” Gamba said. “They did a nice job getting that cut and he did hesitate after he rounded second, but again, that's the way it goes sometimes. You have to roll the dice once in a while and we did.”
When Nick Ventura battled for a walk in the seventh, it was the last time the Maroons put a runner on base. Perrotta fanned three in the inning as the Raiders swarmed the mound to celebrate.
“This is just awesome,” Perrotta said. “Everybody doubted us in the beginning. In the beginning of the year, we lost so many people, but you know what, coach wouldn't let us give up. It's crazy.”
Compared to Utica's nine, Auburn left just three runners stranded all night. Unlike their two previous playoff wins over Baldwinsville and Fayetteville-Manlius when they tallied over 10 hits in each game, the Maroons simply couldn't get a break against Perrotta.
“We left it on the field,” Gamba said. “It just didn't work out our way. We have nothing to hang our heads about, (Utica) is a good team. We can replay the game and have the 'what ifs,' but I could have had the sixth number in lotto last night and I wouldn't have to worry about a lot of things right now. That's the game of baseball. It's a funny game, sometimes you get the breaks and sometimes you don't. When you have more errors than runs, that's usually a bad sign.”
With their 17-8 season now closed down, the Maroons will have plenty of chances to reflect on an incredible season. Even with 10 talented seniors graduating, Gamba and assistant coach Tom Napoli have, in two years, built a program that has restored pride to Auburn baseball.
“I'm proud of this team, they had a great year,” Gamba said. “These kids really stood up to the challenges made from our coaching staff - meeting them and exceeding them. They're a fine bunch of young gentleman and this game today is a big step for our program. I love these guys - they got to experience a lot of things this year that they didn't before and this is something that no one will be able to take from them.”
Raiders 4
Maroons 3
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