Using a familiar formula, the top-seeded Kendall Eagles rode starting pitcher Gavin Bruan’s five-hitter to shut out Genesee Valley-Belfast 6-0 and win the Class C2 Section V baseball title. It marks their second baseball championship in school history, their tenth shutout of the season, and extended their winning streak to 15 games.
“It feels amazing; we’ve been working for this our whole lives,” said junior shortstop Vince D’Agostino. “We had energy, then we got shut down but then today…just kept the same energy and helped us keep rolling.”
“It feels really good; it’s crazy, surreal,” tournament Most Valuable Player Braun said.
Kendall earned the number one seed via their 19-1 regular season with their only blemish a 2-1 loss to Livonia in late April. They outscored their opponents 206-33 during the regular season and 20-2 in the postseason as they advance to the state tournament.
In the title game, the Eagles took advantage of several errors to plate four runs in the first inning – two on a double by junior Nic Cole. They added another at Dwyer Stadium in Batavia in the second inning when junior center fielder Mike Colucci was hit by a pitch, stole second, and later scored on an RBI single from sophomore first baseman Charlie D’Agostino to bring the lead to 5-0.
Then rain forced the game to be suspended and picked up one day later on a turf field at Livonia High School.
The Eagles scored a sixth run as junior second baseman Jonathan Conte led off the fourth inning with an infield single, stole second, and scored on an error by the GV-B shortstop.
Meanwhile Braun was mowing down hitters – ten strikeouts in all – and working out of trouble when he needed to with two runners in scoring position in the fifth and another in the seventh. It was the first time all season he pitched on consecutive days.
“Just focused on every pitch, made sure I was throwing strikes and my team could make the plays, and we got it done,” Braun said. “I’ve always been able to pitch well in high-stress situations and bad weather conditions, so it wasn’t really too bad for me.”
The Eagles had only two seniors on the roster in Braun and starting catcher Colby Hughes.
“We haven’t had a team that was one-through-twelve, one-through-fifteen and have JV players come up and take roles; we’ve never had this before,” Kendall head coach Tige Noni said. “We’ve had some really good players but not surrounded by the rest, and this is the formula for success.
“At the beginning of the year, I told them they were the best team all-in on paper and I told them on the first day of practice, ‘You haven’t done anything yet.’ You have to got out and prove it, and they did.”
Kendall went on to defeat Geneseo 5-4 in the Class C state qualifier on June 3 and is set to face Section VI champion Gowanda in the Class C Far West Regional on June 7.
