Silberman’s Sacrifice Fly Gives MCC 11th Inning Victory

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Silberman’s Sacrifice Fly Gives MCC 11th Inning Victory
Cougars Recover from 4-1 Ninth Inning Deficit to Win 5-4

MANCHESTER – Sophomore A.J Silberman’s (Meriden) sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning gave Manchester CC (5-10, 1-0) a 5-4 victory over Quinsigamond CC (3-6, 0-1) in the first Region 21 game for both teams.

Garret DaCunto (Meriden) led off the inning with a line drive triple into the left-center field gap on the first pitch he saw from reliever Alex Quiles and scored easily on Silberman’s fly ball to center field on Quiles’ next pitch.

The game was tied at 1-1 from the top of the fourth inning until Quinsigamond scored three runs in the top of the tenth inning. Manchester answered back with three runs after two were out in the bottom of the tenth to tie the game at 4-4.

Quinsigamond loaded the bases in the top of the 11th off reliever Mike Methot (Bristol), but he got Pat Gilman to chase a high fastball for a strikeout to end the threat.

“It wasn’t how I would draw it up, but we got the result we needed to get,” said head coach Chris Strahowski.

Both starting pitchers went deep into the game. Matthew Niedzwiecki (Bristol) recorded six strikeouts through eight innings while only allowing the one run in the top of the fourth, while Quinsigamond starter, George Berberian went nine, and also had six K’s and allowed just one earned run in the bottom of the first.

“He’s always around the zone, just throws strikes,” said Strahowski of Niedzwiecki, who has a 2.57 ERA after two starts. “We could have thrown him out there for the ninth but he was upper 80’s pitch wise, so we didn’t want to stretch him out too much.”

Both teams played errorless in the field, while DaCunto and Silberman flashed some leather in the field. DaCunto tracked a deep fly ball in right field and made a spectacular over the shoulder diving catch on the warning track to save two runs and end the sixth inning. And Silberman, who is the starting third baseman, filled in at shortstop with three assists, two putouts and was in the middle of a 6-4-3 double play to end the third.

“Even though it’s our 15th game, it’s only our fourth day on grass,” said Strahowski. “We haven’t practiced on this field yet so to come out and play a clean defensive game is very good for us and our pitchers.”

Silberman finished the day 2 for 4 with one walk, a run scored and the game winning sacrifice fly as MCC recorded its second walk-off win of the season. The other coming on March 15 vs. ECSU-JV when Andrew Tremley (Meriden) hit a homer leading off the eighth in to give the Cougars a doubleheader sweep.

Schedule Note: The road game scheduled for Wednesday, March 23 in Fishkill, NY vs. Monroe College has been postponed until a later date.