PSAL “A”
Tottenville 8
Monroe 7
PSAL “B”
Beacon 6
Randolph 3
John Benedetto didn’t pick the most exciting way to do it, but you can’t complain about how you drive in the game-winning run in a title game.
“Maybe it’s not the way you expect it to happen,” the Tottenville senior said. “But this was a great way to end my career.”
Benedetto walked with the bases loaded in the final inning to force in the winning run in Tottenville’s 8-7 victory at KeySpan Park, as the Pirates beat Monroe in the PSAL “A” title game for the second time in three years.
This one couldn’t have been any closer. Benedetto let a 3-2 fastball from Monroe’s Victor Morales sail by on the game’s last pitch.
“It was high and outside,” Benedetto said.
It ended a sloppy game that featured plenty of mistakes from both teams, the top two seeds in the league.
“They didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves,” said Monroe head coach Mike Turo, whose team walked four batters in the bottom of the seventh after tying the game in the top of the inning on a botched rundown. “We were making errors all day and we just didn’t play like we should.”
Monroe opened up a 5-1 lead in the third after home runs by Luis Rosario and Emmanuel Paula, but top-seeded Tottenville showed a resiliency it hadn’t needed much this season.
“We were a little nervous,” Louie Curcio said. “That’s a lot of runs to make up in a game like this, but it’s never easy to win this game.”
Benedetto was unsure, as well.
“It was kind of a shock,” Benedetto said of the early deficit. “I almost thought they had it won.”
Much like two years ago, when Tottenville’s Sal Iacono belted a game-winning homer in the ninth to beat Monroe in the title game at Shea, the Pirates persevered.
A fifth-inning rally sparked by a pair of Monroe errors after freshman Danny Almonte came in to relieve with the bases loaded helped Tottenville get back in the game.
“I really feel bad for Danny,” Turo said. “He pitched well enough to help us get the win.”
The dramatics were left to Benedetto.
“It was a close pitch and I wasn’t sure what the call would be,” Benedetto said. “I thought he made the right one.”
*
Beacon won its second straight PSAL “B” title, but it wasn’t the same as last year.
“We really wanted to get back to Shea [Stadium],” said Tomas Farrell, who pitched the Blue Demons to a 6-3 win over Randolph at KeySpan. “That was our motivation all year.”
Both title games were scheduled for Shea, but were bumped late last week because the wedding of Rep. Gary Ackerman’s daughter already was planned to be held there.
“We were really [ticked] off,” said Farrell, a sophomore who surrendered one run in five innings in the victory. “Everything went from perfect to terrible, but it turned out all right.”