Detroit -- After the ball rolled through his legs to load the bases with no outs, junior pitcher Kevin Carroll knew he had to make a play to redeem himself and keep Warren De La Salle from blowing a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Carroll got the next batter to pop out to left and then was faced with almost the identical play he had committed an error on two batters earlier.
Novi Detroit Catholic Central senior infielder Ryan Keller hit a tapper right to Carroll, who fielded the ball and threw to home plate on a fielder’s choice, just in time, saving a run from scoring.
“I’m no middle-infielder,” Carroll said. “It just felt good and I went with it.
“You’ve got to come back and make a play, get ahead,” Carroll said. “I just saw the ball take a big hop, grabbed it with my bare hand and threw it. It felt good, just had a feeling to throw it to home.”
With two batters out, Carroll struck out the last Catholic Central batter, sealing a 6-4 victory and the A-B Division Catholic League Championship for De La Salle.
“As you could see in the last inning, they were executing bunts making us make plays, but Kevin Carroll came through with gutsy performance,” Matt Cook, De La Salle head coach said. “At the end there he could’ve easily caved in, but he stepped up and made some nice pitches.”
De La Salle opened the scoring in the second inning when an infield single hit off the Catholic Central pitcher to score senior outfielder Austin Fleming, who hit a triple to start the inning, at third.
Senior infielder Brenden Kudla was then hit by a pitch and sophomore infielder Cole Clifton had a bunt-single to load the bases.
After two Pilot batters popped out and struck out consecutively, senior Dominic Brugnoni hit a single into left scoring a run and the throw to third trying to tag out Kudla was wild, scoring him also, putting De La Salle up 3-0.
“Two-out hitting is usually the key to the game,” Cook said. “I told someone earlier in the week it was going to come down to two-out hitting and sure enough we came through with our share of two-out hits early on and once you get a lead it makes it a little bit easier to coach.”
The Pilots bats remained hot in the third inning. With two outs, Carroll hit a single to left and Kudla and Brugnoni were walked to load the bases. Freshman infielder Dominic DiPuma then hit a single into center scoring Carroll and Kudla, who beat out the throw home on a back door slide into home plate to take a 5-0 lead.
Catholic Central began to battle back in the bottom of the third scoring a run on a wild pitch and again in the fourth on a wild throw to third, cutting the lead to 5-2.
In the fifth, the Shamrocks cut the lead to 5-4 after senior infielder Dominic Etue scored off of a single from senior infielder P.J. Nowak and senior infielder Bobby Dulzo drew a walk with the bases loaded to bring a run home.
De La Salle added an insurance run in the sixth inning off of an errant throw to second on a fielder’s choice, bringing home Brugnoni, who had hit a double earlier in the inning.
Carroll recorded his first save of the season in his first save attempt, striking out three batters and Brugnoni went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs for De La Salle. Nowak went 2-for-4 with a RBI for Catholic Central.
“It was a great win for our team,” Kudla said. “I don’t think anyone gave us a chance against Brother Rice in the first round or even Catholic Central in the finals. Tonight took a total team effort for all seven innings and it feels great to be Catholic League champs.”
