Box Score
MOOSIC, Pa.- The No. 2 Immaculata baseball team (26-11) has forced a winner-take-all Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Championship game with a convincing 13-2 victory over No. 1 Keystone on Sunday at PNC Field. The Mighty Macs need to defeat the Giants twice in the final day of the CSAC Tournament to advance to their first NCAA Tournament and they are halfway there after the big first game victory. The defeat for the Giants ends a 26-game winning streak in the CSAC playoffs and is their first defeat in program history.
Senior
Kyle Bacher (1-2), typically the closer, got the first start of his career and was brilliant, tossing 5 1/3 innings allowing just one run and three hits, while striking out three. Freshman
Greg Grandelli picked up the first save of his career as he went 3 2/3 innings and allowed three hits and one unearned run. Combined, Bacher and Grandelli surrendered just six hits and one earned run in an outstanding effort.
On offense, the Macs grinded out 10 hits and took advantage of five Keystone errors and 11 walks to pull away. Senior designated hitter
Howie Kalamets (2 RBI, R, 2 BB), freshman catcher
Tyler Kmiec (RBI, 2 R, BB), and senior right fielder
Dom Ficca (2 R, RBI) all had two hits for IU.
Both pitchers cruised through the first inning, but the Macs were the first to strike in their half of the second. Senior left fielder
Matt Simon (1-for-3, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB) walked to lead off the inning and moved to second on a groundout.
Dom Ficca got the Macs on the board with an RBI single to left field. Senior shortstop
Ryan Ficca (1-for-2, 3 R, 2 BB) then laid down a bunt that was thrown away and IU had runners on the corners with one out. Junior second baseman
Pat Devenney (R, RBI) hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0, and another error by the Giants allowed
Ryan Ficca to score to make it 3-0 early.
Bacher got a 1-2-3 inning again in the second and used a double play ball in the third to preserve the 3-0 advantage. Keystone got on the board in the bottom of the fourth to trim the IU lead to 3-1, but the Macs had a quick response. The Macs loaded the bases on three consecutive one out walks, and Simon brought home a run with a sacrifice fly to right field to make it 4-1.
The score held into the bottom of the sixth when the Giants mounted their best threat of the day. They loaded the bases with one out against Bacher, and the Macs went to the bullpen for Grandelli, who escaped the trouble with a strikeout and line out to keep IU up by three.
IU carried that momentum over into the seventh inning when they blew the game wide open by sending 11 hitters to the plate and scoring six runs. Senior first baseman
Ryan Tecco (1-for-4, R, 2 BB, SB) walked, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch. Following a pop out, Simon singled to center field to extend the advantage to 5-1. He then stole second, and scored on an RBI single by Kmiec. Kmiec moved to second on a single by
Dom Ficca, and a
Ryan Ficca walk loaded the bases with one out and a 6-1 lead. Back-to-back wild pitches made it 8-1, and senior centerfielder
Jason McCormick singled up the middle for a 9-1 lead. Kalamets added an RBI single to build up the huge 10-1 lead.
The Macs added three more in the eighth on a two-run error off the bat of Devenney and an RBI single by Kalamets.
Grandelli was great on the mound, allowing just the one unearned run as the Macs had forced a winner-take-all CSAC Championship game on Sunday afternoon.
