Courtesy of Kirk Reed, Assistant Commissioner of the CACC
Blauvelt, NY (5/11/07) The #1 Caldwell College Cougars baseball team defeated the #4 Dominican College Chargers n extra innings this evening in an elimination game of the 2007 CACC Tournament. With the win, Caldwell advances to the CACC Tournament Championship against #2 Wilmington College tomorrow afternoon.
In the final game of the night, Caldwell (24-12) junior catcher Chris Chiarappa singled through the left side of a drawn-in infield in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Cougars a 5-4 victory over Dominican. The Cougars loaded the bases with one out after a walk, a single and an intentional walk.
Dominican (19-19) trailed 4-1 entering the eighth inning but scored three times to knot the game at four. The Chargers scored two runs on Caldwell fielding errors, along with an RBI single by senior 1B Brian Smith (Stony Point, NY).
Dominican was in position to steal the victory in the top of the 10th inning after putting runners on second and third with nobody out. However, Cougar junior right-hander Tommy Murphy got out of the jam by retiring the next three batters on a groundout, a strikeout and a fly out.
Murphy, who started the game at shortstop, worked the final 2.2 innings and allowed only three hits with two strikeouts to improve to 3-0 this season. Freshman starter Omar Velazquez worked a solid 7.0 innings and surrendered seven hits and two earned runs while fanning seven in getting a no-decision.
Wilmington (28-18) advanced to the championship round behind the pitching of junior right-hander Joe Matterer, who hurled a complete game shutout in a 1-0 victory over Dominican earlier in the day. Wildcat senior right fielder Jason Rust hit a towering home run over the centerfield fence for the only run of the game. It was his 20th homer of the season.
Matterer scattered four hits and fanned five to improve to 12-1 this season. Dominican righty Joe Catanese (Huntington, NY) allowed only five hits and one run while fanning seven in the tough complete-game loss. He is now 2-5 this season.