Varsity Baseball Extra-Inning Walk-Off Victory!

By: Clayton Collier

The Friars had their work cut out for them, facing the first place, 11-2 St. Dom's Bay Hawks Thursday afternoon. With junior hurler Jake Kurz on the hill, St. Anthony's was in a good position to stop the red-hot Bay Hawk bats. The game from the start was going to be a great matchup, but by the end, it was one to remember, and one the Friars will not soon forget.

In the top of the second inning, Kurz surrendered a run to St. Dom's, but the Friars responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning, capitalized by some heads-up baserunning by catcher Mike D'acunti and third baseman Dave Groeneveld.

St. Dom's would later tied the game up, forcing them into extra innings. Kurz pitched 6+ innings surrendering just 2 runs, getting into jams at times, but when it came to two outs and runners on, the junior righty was unhittable.

Dave Groeneveld took over, pitching two scoreless relief innings to keep the Friars in the game. Groeneveld's outing would prove to be crucial to the Friars exciting win.

Then comes the bottom of the 8th, Ryan D'Alessandro led off the inning with a single, and after two outs, there was one last chance for the Friars, Justin Whalley. Whalley had struggled at the plate Thursday, going 0-2 with a strikeout and a groundout prior to this at-bat. After some last words of advice from coach Wilcox, Whalley stepped in. With two outs and the potential winning run in scoring position,   Whalley delivered. As the ball dropped into left center, the team flew out of the dug out, arms spread wide open running to tackle their right fielder. As Whalley's fellow teammates piled on top of him, hearing the announcer scream "THE FRIARS WIN", the Friars had won one of the biggest games of the season, knocking the now 11-3 Bay Hawks out of 1st place.

"I was glad to deliver the game winning hit in a game that meant so much to this team that has worked so hard all season long." Said the Johns Hopkin's University-bound Whalley

When asked how he felt when delivering the big hit, Whalley said that he "Felt like a little kid winning the World Series."

The Friars will now go for a sweep of the Bay Hawks friday in Oyster Bay. After such an exciting win Thursday, the Friars have some major momentum going into the playoffs this year.