The Mohonasen baseball team will have to wait another year to break its two-decade Section II title drought.
Pitcher Josh Ingham drove in five runs and scattered four Mohonasen hits to lead No. 4 Ichabod Crane to a 9-2 victory over the No. 2 Mighty Warriors in Saturday’s Class A final at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy.
I can’t knock what Ichabod Crane did today. They’re a heck of a team, said Mohonasen coach Jim Huggins.
Things started off well for Mohonasen (15-6). After pitcher Robert Tedesco struck out the side in the top of the first inning, C.J. Fonda tripled and scored on Alex Massaroni’s two-out double in the bottom of the first to give the Mighty Warriors a 1-0 lead.
The advantage didn’t last long. Ingham followed up a leadoff walk to Derick Horn with a two-run home run down the left field line to put Ichabod Crane (19-8) up 2-1. Trevor Zolner then doubled to the left field wall and scored on a double steal following an Evan Brennan single to make the score 3-1.
`Ingham hit the home run, things shifted and we couldn’t get things to turn back our way,` said Huggins.
Mohonasen got one run back in the bottom of the third inning. A leadoff walk to Patrick Herrington and a one-out single by Tedesco put runners on first and second. Two batters later, Massaroni laced an RBI single to drive in Herrington and cut Ichabod Crane’s lead to 3-2.
That was as close as the Mighty Warriors would get, though. Ingham broke the game open with a bases-loaded triple in the top of the fifth inning and kept Mohonasen off the base paths the rest of the way.
`We hit the ball hard, and one of the scariest things as a coach is when you hit the ball hard right at people. That’s what happened to us tonight,` said Huggins.
Tedesco was tagged for nine runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings of work ` his worst outing of the season. Dave Hondro entered with one out in the top of the sixth inning and got the final five outs.
`(Tedesco) didn’t have command over his second pitch (a slider) for a strike, and that hurt him,` said Huggins. `He was throwing it high.`
Mohonasen will now try to break its 27-year title drought next year with a team that includes seven players from this season’s roster including Tedesco, designated hitter Vincent DeMarco and outfielder Jacob Papa.
`We went through a lot of difficult competition (to get here),` said Huggins. `The kids worked hard, and I can’t take anything away from them.“
