Hilton-Athena in Class AA final

Hilton-Athena in Class AA final

It came down to a battle between second seed Hilton and first seed Greece Athena for the Class AA baseball title. Looking for their first championship since 1997, the Cadets held favored Athena scoreless through four innings before the Trojans broke the game open with four runs in the fifth inning for a 4-0 victory.

Hilton threatened in the second inning. With one out, Gavin Black walked and gained second base on a wild pitch. After Kevin Sullivan was hit by a pitch, Corey McEvoy advanced both with a fielder's choice. The inning ended on a strike out.

The Cadets got a runner to third base in the third, but could not score. Ninth place hitter Brian Duffy singled to left to lead off. After a strikeout, Nick Pappas reached on an error putting runners at first and third. But the Trojans escaped with a strikeout-caught stealing double play.

In the fourth, catcher Jeff Allen led off with a bloop single to right. Brian Combs pinch ran and was sacrificed to second by Black. Sullivan reached on an infield error putting runners at first and third, but the next two batters struck out to again foil the threat.

Duffy led off the Hilton fifth inning with a walk and reached second on an infield single by leadoff hitter Jon Schwind. But after Nick Pappas bunted them into scoring position and an infield popup for the second out, in a planned decoy, Schwind fell down leading off second and the eventual rundown ended the inning with a tag at third.

And that finally seemed to energize the Titans. They sent nine men to the plate and scored four runs in their half of the fifth. The big blows were run scoring doubles by Albert Gleichauf for the game's first run and from catcher Joe Pavone off the left field wall.

For the fourth time in the game, the Cadets put runners at second and third in the seventh inning on a single by Jake Coleman and a double that dropped just inside the right field line off the bat of Pappas, but Class AA MVP Brian Dupra came on in relief for the Trojans and breezed three straight fastballs for the final out of the game.

"It was a great game," said Hilton second-year head coach Jeff Murphy. "We out-hit them seven to six, but they capitalized on their opportunities and we didn't get it done.

"I'm proud of these guys. They battled back and we had a great season. We lost to a great team that usually scores in double digits. Kevin Sullivan pitched an excellent game, but we couldn't get the runs in. In a big game like this it comes down to one big play, but that's baseball."

Starting pitcher Sullivan cruised through the first four innings allowing just a first inning single, a second inning walk and another batter reaching on an error in the fourth. He struck out three batters and suffered the loss as Hilton finished their season with a 17-6 record. Jake Swanson came on in relief and pitched the final two and a third innings retiring four of the five batters he faced.

Seniors Brian Combs, Joe Michaloski, Sullivan, Swanson, Matt Davis, Erik Gutman, Coffey and Marc Liotta all were in uniform, all completed their high school careers.