Monday, June 2nd, saw the opening round of the CIAC Baseball state tournaments take place. The South Windsor Bobcats earned the second seed in the class LL tournament and hosted the Greenwich Cardinals at Rotary Field for a highly anticipated round one matchup.
Despite the ‘Cats 17-3 and the Cardinals 8-12 records respectively, the two lineups were full of firepower and looked to be one of the biggest round one games in the entire bracket.
Senior Robert Wunsch was given the nod from coach Mike Mcdermott to take the mound for the game, a testament to the dominance by Wunsch all season long. They righty sailed through the first inning to keep the bases clean.
Two Bobcats got on base with walks in the home side of the first but neither came to score to leave the game scoreless.
A baserunner in the top of the second wouldn’t phase Wunsch as he painted the zone and sent the game to the bottom of the second still tied at 0.
Senior shortstop Justin Dittmar led off the inning and reached first safely on an error by the Cardinals shortstop. Freshman Tyler Poland came to bat after and ate a curveball off his leg to put runners on first and second with no outs.
Next to the plate was senior catcher Jake Gombotz who laid down a sacrifice bunt that was mishandled and thrown away by the Greenwich pitcher to bring in Dittmar and put runners on second and third.
Junior Aiden Jackson followed after and smoked a ball up the middle for a base hit to score Poland and move Gombotz to third, who came in just one pitch later on a single from sophomore Braydon Falco. The ‘Cats struck and put up 3 with no outs in the inning.
Later that same inning, senior Jake Plaombizio stepped into the box with the bases loaded and two outs. Palombizio has been in and out of the lineup recently with a back injury, but once he got ahold of the ball, he showed the power hasn’t left after launching a bases clearing double to blow the game open at 6-0.
A leadoff single to start the third looked to pose a threat to Wunsch but a trifecta of strikeouts kept the score as is.
The ‘Cats were set down in order during the third inning as Wunsch went back out to the mound for the fourth, an inning to forget for Wunsch and Dittmar.
A leadoff single, a walk, and another single loaded the bases for the Cardinals, who finally capitalized with an RBI single. The next batter would hit to Dittmar at short but the ‘Cats failed to turn the double play and only got the runner at second for the first out of the inning.
The next ball was hit to the same place, but a late flip would allow everyone to be safe and cut the lead to just 3.
Wunsch was finally able to escape the inning and keep Greenwich at arm’s length.
Senior Sam Balducci hit a single and advanced to second when Wunsch hit into an error to put two on with one out but both runners were stranded there.
The top of the 5th saw Wunsch return to his smooth sailing through the Greenwich lineup with a 1-2-3 inning.
Poland leadoff with a comebacker to the pitcher that was thrown way over the first baseman’s head and allowed Poland to go to second, before he moved to third on a sacrifice from Jackson.
The ‘Cats continued with the small ball approach when Falco sacrificed himself with a very awkward pop fly bunt that went over the third baseman’s head to make the Cardinals only play be at first and bring Poland to score.
A Palombizio single in the sixth scored Balducci, who was soon joined by Wunsch at the plate on a passed ball to score the game’s final run and make the score 9-3.
A groundout started the top of the seventh, before a strikeout to bring the game to the final out. The Cardinals didn’t go down without a fight. A walk and two singles loaded the bases for Greenwich, before Wunsch settled in and set down the final batter of the game on his 105th pitch.
In his first career playoff game, sophomore Braydon Falco delivered in both the field and at the plate. “We had a great game. Everyone is working hard to do their part and I’m very blessed to be a part of such a special team,” Falco said.
The Bobcats won 9-3, marking their third straight year with a first round win.
Wunsch’s final line was seven innings, seven hits, three runs, and nine strikeouts.
After the game, Wunsch spoke to The Prowl, saying “It was a great team effort. I got run support very quickly and [it] helped me settle into the game well. They were a good ball club but the ‘Cats were just better.”
Thanks in large part to a monumental 5-1 upset from the 32 seed Glastonbury Guardians over top seeded Amity, the Bobcats are now the highest ranked team remaining in the tournament.
Round two will take place at 4:00 PM today against the Jesuits of Fairfield Prep in another tough battle for the Bobcats, looking to book their ticket to the quarterfinals on Saturday.
