Home Local Sports Salesianum scores final five runs, flashes the leather in 7-4 baseball win...

Salesianum scores final five runs, flashes the leather in 7-4 baseball win over Caravel: Photo gallery

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The Sals' Deuce Rzucidlo has the play in front of him after a double. Dialog photo/Mike Lang

BEAR — Salesianum’s baseball team trailed host Caravel, 4-2, after four innings on May 10, but the Sals scored the final five runs of the evening on their way to a 7-4 victory. MORE HERE.

Salesianum starting pitcher Zach Czarnecki retired the Buccaneers in order in the fourth, and the Sals went to work on the two-run deficit in their half of the fifth. Ryan James opened the frame with a walk, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, and scored when John Dunion smoked a ground-rule double to left-center. He moved to third on a wild pitch and tied the game after a sacrifice fly ball off the bat of Brandon Baffone.

The Sals’ offense picked up in the sixth. Deuce Rzucidlo singled to right on the first pitch. He took second on a sacrifice bunt and scored the eventual winning run on a Quinn Bartkowski single, just beating the laser-like throw from Caravel rightfielder Bradyn Thompson.

Aiden Tesche walked, and he and courtesy runner Jude Carter pulled off a double steal. Thompson relieved Bucs starting pitcher Timothy Tyler, and he walked James to load the bases. Carter scored on a wild pitch to extend the lead to two, and Dunion brought in the final run with a sacrifice fly.

Salesianum had a 2-0 lead after one and a half innings. Consecutive doubles by Baffone and Rzucidlo produced one run, and Rzucidlo would come home on an error. But the Bucs answered in their half of the second. Anthony Nardo was hit by a pitch to start things off, and after an out, Kaden Bredickas walked and Thompson hit an infield single to load the bases. Two wild pitches tied the game, and the Bucs took the lead on a fielder’s choice.

Caravel added its fourth run in the third. Zane Bohm opened with a triple on the first pitch of the inning, and Nardo brought him home with a suicide squeeze.

The game featured several standout defensive plays. Tesche smashed a ball up the middle and off Bucs pitcher Tyler, but shortstop Bohn was there to make the play. In the fifth, Rzucidlo charged in from third to catch an attempted sacrifice bunt in the air, and he easily doubled off the runner. The Bucs ended the Sals sixth inning with a catch in right that turned into a double play when the outfielder fired a strike to third base to get the runner. Finally, the Sals got out of a small jam in the sixth with a double play on a fly ball to Tesche.

The Sals improved to 11-2 and host Cape Henlopen on Thursday at 4:15 p.m. in their final regular-season home game. Caravel (5-8) plays Delaware Military Academy on Thursday at 4 p.m. at Newark National Little League.

All photos by Mike Lang.