Cougars Stay in Winner’s Bracket with 4-3 Win over Erie CC

Cougars Stay in Winner’s Bracket with 4-3 Win over Erie CC
Niedzwiecki Throws Complete Game; Madera Drives in a Pair to put MCC on Brink of Championship

By Paul Ofria

TYLER, TX - Manchester CC (26-22) stayed in the winner's bracket at the NJCAA DIII World Series with a 4-3 win over Erie CC (29-17) Sunday night. Mat Niedzwiecki (Bristol) pitched a complete game and Kevin Madera had two RBI for the Cougars, who will play Gloucester CC (30-16) Monday at 8 PM Eastern Time. The winner of that game will get Tuesday off and move directly to the championship game on Wednesday at 8 PM Eastern Time.

Garrett DaCunto (Meriden) scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the top of the eighth inning, moments after he threw out the potential go-ahead run at the plate to end the bottom of the seventh
Niedzwiecki (5-3) allowed 12 hits and had just two strikeouts, but did not walk a batter and threw only 107 pitches over nine innings.

“He throws strikes and goes deep in games,” MCC head coach Chris Strahowski said of Niedzwiecki, who pitched 8.2 shutout innings in the Region 21 championship game to send MCC to Tyler. “There were pitches where he just missed his location, then kind of hit the reset button and started hitting spots again.”

The Cougar bats could only muster up three hits – catcher Kyle Holland (Montville) had two of them – and took advantage of four Erie (outside of Buffalo, NY) errors. Madera knocked in A. J. Silberman (Meriden) twice - with a bases loaded walk in the third inning and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Alec Brown (Montville) scored MCC’s first run on a three base throwing error by Erie first baseman Jesse Zelner. Erie starter Alex Dannett had Brown, who had walked with one out in the second, picked off. But Zelner air mailed his throw over second base and the ball found a spot in the left center field gap. By the time Erie’s outfielder chased the ball down, Brown had scored the game’s first run.

MCC made it 2-0 in the second on Madera’s bases loaded walk, but Erie tied the game at 2-2 with single runs in the third and fourth innings. All three MCC hits came off Dannett, who was pulled with one out in the fourth after throwing 89 pitches. The teams traded runs in the fifth, making it a 3-3 stalemate going into the bottom of the seventh.

“The kid that started was a little wild and it’s hard to get in a grove – I’m mean that’s not excuse for three hits,” Strahowski said. “We had bases loaded a few times but couldn’t pull the trigger on that game opener.”

In contrast to Niedzwiecki’s walk-free effort, the three Erie pitcher’s issued nine walks while Manchester’s defense, despite making a pair of errors that led to one unearned run, snuffed out several possible rallies. Kyle Lentini (Southington) threw Neal DeMartin out trying to go from first to third on Joe Pantano’s single with two out in the third. And earlier in the inning, Jesse Sutherland (Montville) snared a liner on the bat of catcher Justin Carpenter on a ball that was clearly heading into left field for a single.

Which brings us to the biggest defensive play of the game.
Erie had runners at second and third with one out in the seventh when Pantano hit a fly ball to medium right. The ball had some air under it and was about 15 feet off the foul line. DaCunto caught the ball for the second out, and then fired it to Holland on the fly. Holland decoyed the runner by standing in a casual stance near home plate as the ball traveled toward him. At the last possible moment, he reached for the ball, caught it, and in one motion put the tag down on the runner,
Austin Benshadl, who was nowhere near the plate as he slid toward it.

“From gliding to his glove side, to turn all the way around, then throw a dart to the plate was amazing,” Strahowski said.
The play fired up the Manchester dugout on the third base side, and moments after DaCunto traded his glove for a bat, he was standing on first base with a leadoff walk then moved over to second when Yohendy Gonzalez (New London) reached on error while attempting to sacrifice. Lentini sacrificed both Gonzalez and DaCunto 90-feet forward, allowing DaCunto to score the game winner when a Mick Cummings – Erie’s third pitcher of the game - pitch skipped past Carpenter.

Defending champion Gloucester CC beat Joliet JC 7-3 earlier in the day and will be meeting Manchester for the third time this season Monday night. Gloucester swept a double header in Sewell, NJ on March 19 by 1-0 and 7-4 scores. This time around, the stakes are higher..

“It’s fantastic,” Strahowski said of the rematch with the Region 19 champion. “The teams are familiar with each and it will be a good ball game.”

Score by Innings R H E
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Manchester CC....... 011 010 010 - 4 3 2
Erie Com. College... 001 110 000 - 3 12 4
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E - Gonzalez; Niedzwiecki; Pantano 2; Zellner; Dunn. LOB - Cougers 12; Cats 8. 2B - DeMartin; Wagner; Ferracuti. HBP - Gonzalez. SH - McMahon; Lentini 2. SF - Madera. SB - Holland 2; Sutherland; Brown; Gonzalez.