St. Edward advances to regional title game

HARVARD - When the game announcer referred to Wednesday's game as a "seesaw battle", St. Edward baseball coach Gene Belmonte took exception.

He didn't want a "seesaw" matchup with his No. 1 seeded Green Wave and No. 5 Genoa-Kingston, who exchanged leads through the first three innings.

St. Edward looked the equivalent of Fat Albert jumping on one end of a seesaw after scoring 3 runs in the third and 4 more in the fifth to take a 8-4 victory in its opening game of the Class 2A Harvard regional at the Hornets Nest.

St. Edward had 6 of its 9 hits go for extra bases including a massive home run from Luke Duffy to seal the victory.

"That's been our M.O. all year; we're a good gap-hitting team," Belmonte said. "(G-K pitcher Taylor Rogers) threw the ball well and it took us a while to get to him."

The Green Wave, who will now advance to Saturday's regional championship game against either host Harvard or Northridge Prep, did the most damage to Rogers (4-5) in their 4-run fifth inning.

T.J. Madzy got a one-out single and quickly stole second. He didn't stay on the bag for long as Duffy smacked a 2-run homer that easily cleared the 375-foot center field wall to put the Green Wave (15-17) up 6-2. Senior Jordan Torres followed up a batter later with his second double of the game. Julian Ramirez then drew a 4-pitch walk, followed by a 5-pitch walk to Ryan DiCristifano.

Although Torres was thrown out at home, both Ramirez and DiCristifano scored in the inning on a two-run single from No. 8 hitter Jack Sutherland.

The Green Wave's 2 through 5 hitters also did the damage to the Cogs (10-15-1) to take back the lead in the third after allowing 2 Cogs' runs in the top of the inning. No. 2 hitter Madzy stroked a one-out double and then advanced to third and scored off wild pitches. The senior shortstop put the Green Wave up 1-0 after tripling and scoring in the first as well.

"I've been in a slump and was just trying to put my bat on the ball," said Madzy, who was 3-for-4 with 3 runs scored.

Duffy drew a walk and scored when cleanup hitter Torres doubled him in to put St. Edward up 3-2. Ramirez followed Torres with his own RBI double giving the seesaw momentum back to the Green Wave with a 4-2 lead.

"I was trying to hit the ball in the outfield and trying to find the gaps," said Torres, who went 3-for-3 with 2 doubles and an RBI. "I felt more loose at the plate."

Sutherland (5-5) recorded the win for the Green Wave going 7 innings and allowing 4 runs, 3 earned, off 6 hits.