The Blind Brook varsity baseball team hosted Croton-Harmon on Sunday, May 21st for the first game of the double elimination semi-finals. They played in front of their biggest crowd all season and had their ace pitcher, sophomore Andrew Rogovic, starting on the mound. In his last pitching outing, Rogovic put up 19 strikeouts in all seven innings, allowing zero runs.
The Trojans had lots of confidence going into this game due to their pitching performances in their previous quarterfinals game. Senior Jack Vnenchak pitched four innings with nine strikeouts and freshman Asher Toll closed it out with 2.2 innings pitched and two strikeouts for the win.
The Trojans have also been swinging red-hot bats. In the quarterfinals, Rogovic went three for four, senior Lucas Montesano two for three, and senior Michael Civetta went one for three.
Despite the confidence and prior success, the Trojans locked in their focus on the upcoming game. Rogovic started the Trojans off with a strong first inning and completely shut down the Croton Harmon offense. By the second inning the Trojans started rolling in with their bats and put up a few runs.
Fast forward to the sixth inning and the Trojans held onto a 3-0 lead with Rogovic dealing the Tigers. The Trojans got up to bat in the bottom frame and Montesano blasted a solo home run over the left field fence, giving the Trojans even more momentum.
Rogovic took the mound in the top of the seventh, needing three outs to win the game. He delivered, striking out the side and finishing the job with a 75 mile per hour curveball that struck the final batter out, making Blind Brook victorious.
Rogovic finished with all seven innings pitched, allowing only two hits with 14 strikeouts and zero runs. Montesano went two for three with a single and a solo home run, senior captain Vnenchak went two for three, having a triple, as well as 2 RBI’s. Junior Zach Schneider also went two for three.
Blind Brook took game one of the double elimination semi-finals, but lost to Albertus Magnus High School on May 22nd.