7/2/2013

The Georgetown Cup trophy stood proud in the stands Thursday at Coca-Cola Field.

Now it’s returning to St. Joe’s for another year.

Matthew Matre pitched a complete game and Thomas Brummer scored the winning run on a passed ball in the seventh inning as St. Joe’s came from behind to beat Canisius, 2-1, and sweep the Monsignor Martin Association’s championship series for the second straight season.

Matre struck out 10 batters while giving up six hits and no walks. He ended the final three innings with strikeouts, the last one coming when Canisius had the tying run on third.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to come out here and throw the whole game and to end it with a strikeout to win the Georgetown Cup is just surreal,” Matre said.

“We had a bulldog on the mound today,” St. Joe’s coach Paul Nasca said. “He’s been there time and time again. Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he battles and battles. To be able to go out there without his best stuff and put this kind of game together is fantastic. He just gutted one out.”

Before a crowd of more than 300, the Crusaders (17-8) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Brendan Kaplewicz knocked in John Conti. It was the first earned run Marauders pitchers had given up during the playoffs.

St. Joe’s (19-7) tied the game in the fifth inning when Brummer hit a double and moved over to third on a Jared Baldinelli sacrifice. Philip Wells, the Marauders’ leading RBI man all season, then roped a double over the center fielder’s head to bring Brummer home.

Brummer led off the top of the seventh with another double, got to third on a Baldinelli bunt, and scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball with Wells at the plate.

“I stepped up to the plate and I was just swinging for a single and there was a pitch up in my zone and I was ready for it,” Brummer said. “Jared had a nice bunt to get me over and when I saw the passed ball I was thinking I had to get home.”

“You’d like to knock that run in with a hit, but we’ll take that run,” Nasca said. “There’s no pictures in the scorebook.”

Kaplewicz gave Canisius hope in the seventh when he got on base on a fielding error by Matre, stole second, and got to third on a sacrifice bunt before Matre shut the door with a strikeout.

 

For more on this story, click on: https://www.sjci.com/news/article/current/2013/06/11/100160/st.-joes-takes-home-second-georgetown-cup-in-a-row.