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By John Nolan
Assistant Director of Scouting/Content Management 

Colonial Heights-The final game of cold May day was the VISAA Division I State Championship, featuring Paul VI and Collegiate. Paul VI was the top seed in the tournament and featured a senior-laden team with a trio of top arms. The Panthers’ arms dominated in the first two rounds of the tournament, tossing shutouts in both games. Collegiate’s season almost had two parts, the first half of the year, without Will Allocca (Virginia), and the second half of the year, with him. The Cougars with Allocca in the leadoff spot went on a tear down the stretch, riding a twelve game winning streak into the Championship game. The Panthers went with senior Jack Cunningham (Boston College) for the start and the Cougars went with junior ace Evan Justice (NC State).

Collegiate came out swinging in the first as Allocca ripped the first pitch into right for a leadoff single and with one out David Angstadt (William & Mary) doubled to right center. Cunningham found another notch on his fastball and got a pair of strikeouts to end the threat. Justice worked around a two-out baserunner that reached on an error to put up a scoreless first.

Both pitchers moved quickly through the second and third innings, Cunningham adding two more stirkeouts in the second and getting a pretty double-play turn to end the third. Justice allowed a lone baserunner in each inning, a walk in the second and the first hit of the game for the Panthers to Jason Volpicelli in the third.

A leadoff walk to Angstadt in the fourth was followed compounded when Max Vaughan reached on an error. Justice was unable to get the bunt down, but grounded into a fielder’s choice, putting runners at the corners with one out for senior Ben Greer (Washington & Lee). Greer delivered a single to right, driving in Angstadt to open the scoring and sending Justice first to third. Jack Sroba grounded into a fielder’s choice, allowing Justice to score and opening up a 2-0 Collegiate lead in the middle of the fourth inning.

Justice continued to cruise, firing a perfect fourth inning. The Cougars began to apply the pressure again in the fifth as Cunningham began to tire, hitting Jay Mason with a pitch and walking Allocca to start the inning. Travis Reifsnider lined out to center on a full count pitch with the runners in motion, causing Mason to get doubled off of second. Angstadt followed that up with his second hit of the game, and that would be all for Cunningham’s night. Paul VI brought in sophomore lefty Jack Weeks, who got Vaughan out to end the inning. Justice again worked a perfect fifth, as time was beginning to run short for Paul VI.

Paul VI went to the pen again in the top of the sixth inning, turning to senior Tim Newell (Immaculata), who worked around a one-out walk to toss a scoreless inning. In the bottom half of the inning, Justice got a pair of quick outs before Cunningham singled through the right side. Devon Adams (Old Dominion) reached base on an error, putting runners on the corners. Junior Michael Morgan (James Madison) hit a grounder sharply to second that was misplayed for a second straight error, allowing Cunningham to score and cut the lead to 2-1. Justice got Kevin Kelly (James Madison) to fly out to center to end the threat with the lead intact.

Mason started the top of the seventh inning off by working a leadoff walk. Allocca flew out to right and Reifsnider dropped a flop shot into shallow left with one out to chase Newell from the game. Junior Liam McDonnell came in to face Angstadt, and walked him. That brought on another pitching change as Michael Coritz (Navy) entered the game with the bases loaded, trying to keep the Panther deficit at one. Coritz struck out Vaughan looking for the second out. Coritz got justice to chop weakly to third, the third baseman chose to throw across the infield instead of stepping on third, and short hopped the throw which wasn’t handled at first, extending the inning and the lead. Greer then chopped a ball to short, leading to another error and allowing two more runs to score.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Panthers got their first two runners on with hits, but Justice was able to get the next three hitters out, including the final out on a called strike three to end the game and seal the championship for Collegiate with a 5-1 win.

Paul VI
Baine 0-4
Volpicelli 1-4, SB
Cunningham 1-3, R
Adams 0-3
Morgan 0-3
Kelly 0-2, BB
Coritz 1-3
Salva 0-2
Ferreira 1-1
Casagrande 0-2, SAC 

Cunningham 4 2/3 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 2 BB, HBP, 4 K
Weeks 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H
Newell 1 1/3 IP, 2 R, H, 2 BB, K
McDonnell 0 IP, 1 R, 0 H, BB
Coritz 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, BB, 2 K 

Collegiate
Allocca 1-3, BB
Reifsnider 1-4, R
Angstadt 2-2, 2B, 2 BB, 2 R
Vaughan 0-4
Justice 0-4, R
Greer 1-3, BB, RBI
Sroba 0-3, BB, RBI
Williams 0-4
Mason 0-1, BB, HBP, R 

Justice 7 IP, 1 R, 4 H, BB, 4 K, Win

 

Congrats to Coach Slater and the Cougars on the State Championship!!!!