The playoffs are fuelled by drama, and if a walk-off balk in the 10th inning doesn’t fit into that category, I don’t know what does.
That is what it took for Roslyn to put itself in the winner’s bracket, defeating Huntington Valley, 5-4, in 10 innings. It was all Huntington Valley all the time at the beginning of the game, but a big two-run rally in the top of the seventh knotted things up and eventually sent the game into extras.
“My team never gave up, these kids just don’t give up,” Roslyn coach Jim Brett. “I’ve told the guys all year that we are a band of misfits. I’ve got kids on my team for four different high schools, not one of them had a winning record during the school season. But, when they come together, they play really well.”
Huntington Valley was the first to push runs across the plate, getting two on a Chris Ruhl single. Valley increased the lead with an RBI single from Nick Rittler in the fourth, giving them a 3-0 with starting pitcher Matt Lawlor cruising.
The tide began to turn a bit in the top half of the fifth. Trey Goglianona and Sean Gallagher led off with a single each, which allowed Mike Collins to knock in both runs on an error. Not only were the bats coming to life, but starter Christian Salem had settled down and took over control of the game.
Huntington Valley got one back in the bottom half of the fifth with Matt Meyers’ RBI single, giving it a little extra cushion heading into the final two innings. But as they found out, two runs were not going be enough to hold down a feisty Roslyn squad.
The top of the seventh rolled around and it looked as if the game was in the bag, but the Roslyn bats had something to say about that. Gallagher and CJ Brennan led off the inning with singles, which set up Collins’ RBI single and Eric Tidwell’s RBI sacrifice fly to tie the game at 4-4 and eventually send it into extras.
“I told them before the last inning to just refuse to get out,” Brett said. “These guys are playing loose because no one expects them to be here and they take that attitude and stand behind each other like crazy.”
A big reason why Roslyn stayed in the game was the relief pitching of Sean Gallagher, who held down Valley from the seventh inning on, allowing his team’s lineup to play for a win. Through those three innings, Valley barely had any legit scoring chances.
“We typically use [Gallagher] as a closer for one inning,” Brett said. “But, he came up to me at one point and told me that he didn’t care if the game went nine more innings, he wasn’t coming out of the game. He just kept going.”
With the 10th inning came an end to the deadlock. Salem led off with a single and ended up on third after Gallagher served a single threw the middle. Before Brennan got to swing at a pitch, Valley’s relief pitcher balked, bringing home what would be the winning run after Gallagher shut Valley down in the bottom half.
Huntington Valley coach Evan Horn was fine with his team’s performance overall, but knew what they could have done better to hold on and get the win.
“If we had better base running, we could have won by a couple runs,” Horn said. “I thought we were going to win the game. Lawlor did not have his best stuff today, but with Buckley in the bullpen I thought we had the best chance to win. It just didn’t work out that way.”
That being said, Horn believes his team is not near down and out.
“The captain of our team, Jake Madnick, told the guys ‘we are going to come out hitting tomorrow with our backs against the wall,” Horn said. “I don’t expect anything other than a win.”
Roslyn plays Fort Washington in the winner’s bracket, while Valley goes up against Morelanders in the loser’s bracket.
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