Callahan Drives in Two in Seventh for Dramatic Win

Neil Callahan drove in two runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Saratoga Stampede a come-from-behind, 5-4 win over South Kingston, Rhode Island Post 39 in their second game of the 13th Annual Cooper’s Cave Tournament at East Side Rec on Wednesday night.
After a scoreless first inning, Post 39 opened the scoring in the second.
With one out, designated hitter Anthony Tortalano took Saratoga starting pitcher Tyler Prehoda’s 1-1 pitch and drilled it into center field for a base hit. A wild pitch moved Tortalano to second base, and then he went to third on Ryan Stone’s ground out. Will Frost then smacked a single to drive in Tortalano, and South Kingston held a 1-0 lead.
Meanwhile, South Kingston starter Brian Lessard had faced the minimum amount of batters through the first three innings, erasing a leadoff single by Lee Jay Pollachi in the first by getting Justin Wilock to ground into a double play.
That would change in the bottom of the fourth, as Saratoga sent six batters to the plate. With one away, Wilock drew a walk. After Mike Allen struck out for the second out, back-to-back hits by Callahan and Scott Hladik scored Wilock to tie the game at one apiece.
South Kingston, however, would answer back in the fifth with a pair of runs. Ryan Stone led off with a base hit to right field and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Frost. Jay Romano was then sent in to pinch run for Stone, and he stole third. Kevin Carey then smacked a sacrifice fly to score Romano to give Post 39 the lead back at 2-1.
Chris Cocci came up next and he lined a base hit to right, and then stole second. The inning turned ugly after that for Saratoga, as a single, a walk, and another wild pitch ended Prehoda’s night and he was replaced by Chris Curcio.
Curcio’s night started out rough, as he issued a free pass to J.P. Stone. Tyler Shattuck then misplayed a ball hit to short, and by the time Curcio got Graham Manning to look at a third strike, it was a 3-1 ball game.
The Stampede offense would bail out the defense in the bottom of the fifth, and they did it with two outs. Erich Lange began the inning by reaching on an error. Ben Cook then grounded to Cocci, and he threw over to second base for the force. After Levi Washburn, pinch hitting for Tyler Shattuck, struck out, Pollachi came up with a clutch hit, a double to left-center field that would plate Cook to pull the Stampede to within 3-2. Wilock was then hit by a pitch, and then a throwing error by Frost scored Pollachi all the way from second to tie the game at 3-3. Saratoga had a chance to take the lead with runners on first and second, but Callahan popped out to second to retire the side.
Callahan would replace Curcio to start the sixth, and he had major control issues. After hitting Tortalano on the first pitch, he walked Romano on four pitches. He then threw two hard fastballs to Frost to go ahead in the count 0-2. Frost desperately wanted to bunt the runners over with no outs, but when he still attempted to lay one down with two strikes, his bunt went foul and he was called out. Callahan then walked Carey and Cocci, plating Tortalano to put Post 39 up by a 4-3 margin.
With the bases still loaded, Callahan was relieved by Levi Washburn, who would stop the bleeding. Washburn would first get James McKinney to hit a ground ball to second, and Wilock fired home to Baldani for out number two. After that, he went to a 2-2 count before getting J.P. Stone to hit a dribbler towards first. Callahan fielded the ball and flipped to Washburn, who was covering first, and the inning was over.
In the bottom of the inning, Saratoga again had an opportunity to tie the game but could not. Hladik led off with a double, and the inning looked promising. But then Baldani struck out, and Lange bounced a ball that was fielded by pitcher Brian Lessard, and Hladik took off for third. Lessard’s only play was to first base for the second out. Ben Cook then pushed the count to 3-1, but he just got under the next pitch and fouled out to Lessard, stranding Hladik at third and wasting a leadoff double. But that would only add to the drama that was to come.
South Kingston led off the seventh with a single and a stolen base by Forest Dwyer. After Manning looked at a curve ball with two strikes for the third time in the ball game, there was one out. Tortalano grounded out to second, and that moved Dwyer to third.
Not wanting to fall behind any further, Washburn did a terrific job of striking out Romano on three pitches to retire the side.
Washburn led off the Stampede’s final at-bat, and he worked the count full before finally drawing the walk to get the leadoff batter aboard. Pollachi then legged out an infield single, and Saratoga had the tying run in scoring position, the winning run on first, and still nobody out.
Wilock then laid down a sacrifice bunt, and the runners advanced to second and third.
That’s when the tension began to mount. Mike Allen went to a 3-2 count before looking at a called third strike, and Saratoga was down to its last out of the game with Callahan coming up.
Callahan’s at-bat was equally dramatic, as he also worked a full count. Down to his final strike, the ball park was electric with anticipation and cheering for both sides, with the Rhode Island crew rooting for the final out, and the Saratoga faithful looking for a big hit out of their biggest bat.
Callahan would not let the home crowd down, and with the runners taking off on contact, he lined a bullet to left field, scoring both runners for the walk-off base hit and a Stampede victory.
It was a hard-earned win for the Stampede, and they are now 2-0 in pool play of the tournament. Their next game is tomorrow against Saugerties.