In his first appearance in a game since 2015, Anthony Papa recorded the three inning save in 4-1 victory pic.twitter.com/8z4m2uRJIM
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 4, 2018
To say it’s been a long road back would be an understatement.
Anthony Papa, who led Division to the Long Island Championship in 2015, made his first appearance after nearly three years and recorded a three-inning save in St. Joseph’s 4-1 victory on Opening Day against Ithaca after losing Game 1 of the double header.
“It felt weird being out there again,” he said following the game. “Three years in the making, it feels good to finally get back out there. I was a little cold, it’s not the ideal first start, but we got through it, got the big win today and it was good for the boys,” he added.
P.J. Martino got the start for the Golden Eagles and pitched extremely well. He was staked to an early 3-0 lead thanks to a wild pitch that scored Matthew Burnett, an RBI ground out by Tyler Crafa that scored Tyler Sanderson and another wild pitch that scored Anthony Raucci.
Ithaca scored their only run of the game in the third inning on an RBI single by Garrett Snyder to cut the lead to 3-1.
The Golden Eagles extended their lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning when Burnett ripped a single to score Paul Britt.
Martino gave way to Papa, who promptly struck out the first batter he faced on a high fastball. He ran into a bit of trouble, though, allowing a walk and a single but escaped unscathed with a fly out to right field.
In the sixth, a dropped third strike resulted in a base runner at first, but second baseman Tyler Crafa made a great lunging play on a line drive by Andrew Bailey to end the sixth without any damage. He came back out for the seventh and fell behind the first batter 3-0 but came all the way back to strike him out. Despite a two-out walk, he induced a game-ending ground out to second by Webb Little.
Head Coach Rick Garrett noted that he stuck with Papa to finish the game because he “looked great and was able to keep his pitch count down.”
P.J. Martino earned his first win of the year with his four strong innings.
The Golden Eagles will now travel to Florida with their 1-1 record and participate in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational, where they will play eight games over four days in Auburndale, FL.
