The Colonie baseball team suffered a defensive breakdown at the wrong time.
Long Island champion Massapequa scored 10 unearned runs off four Garnet Raider errors in the fifth inning to pull away for an 11-0 victory in Saturday’s state class AA championship game at the University at Binghamton.
One inning doesn’t show how well we played because outside of that inning, we played right with them, said Colonie coach Greg Lanni.
Zach Milos was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Massapequa’s Mike Scudero through the first four innings. Milos scattered two hits and an unearned run, while Scudero allowed only a Hunter Moffatt triple in the fourth inning.
`Zach pitched exceptionally well for the first four innings,` said Lanni.
A pair of infield errors opened the floodgates in the fifth inning for unbeaten Massapequa, though. The second error allowed the first run to score, and Matt Prokopowicz’s three-run home run gave Massapequa a 5-0 lead. Two more Colonie errors helped Massapequa increase its lead to 11 runs ` all of which were unearned.
Scudero shut the door from there. The senior didn’t allow another hit after Moffatt’s triple and finished with seven strikeouts to lead Massapequa to the state title.
Colonie advanced to its first state final appearance with an 8-1 semifinal victory over Section V champion Fairport earlier in the day. The Garnet Raiders jumped out to a 5-0 lead and received strong pitching from Moffatt and reliever Tim Morrison to beat the Red Raiders.
`The first game, we played terrific,` said Lanni. `We got five runs out of the gate, and Hunter Moffatt pitched great.`
Consecutive RBI singles by Andy Romand, Moffatt and Morrison gave Colonie a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. An error on Nick Poleto’s grounder drove in the fourth run, and Joe Poleto brought in Moffatt on a sacrifice fly.
Moffatt tossed 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball before Lanni turned things over to Morrison in the fifth. Morrison allowed a run in the bottom of the sixth, but not before Colonie had increased its lead to 7-0.
Brendan Rowland and Brett Peplowski each had two hits to lead Colonie’s 10-hit attack. Peplowski also scored two runs.
`It was a great season for the guys,` said Lanni.“
