Auburn, NY (5-21-11) – Gabe Torres two out single though the left side scored Roberto Santana from third base to propel the Keystone College Giants to a come from behind 5-4 victory over Cortland State, sending the Giants to the NCAA Division III World Series in Appleton Wisconsin.
This will be the first trip ever for Keystone to the College World Series.
Santana reached via a one out single and was followed up by an intentional walk to Brian Henry. After Andy Vega hit into a fielder's choice to erase Henry, Torres delivered the hit that will go down in Keystone College baseball history.
The Giants will begin play on Friday, May 27 against the winner of the New England Regional at 7:45pm at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton.
The victory comes a day after the Giants defeated this same Cortland team 13-0 to advance to the title game. Esteban Meletiche named as the tournament MVP.
As they have been doing the entire tournament, the Giants struck first in the bottom half of the opening inning. Esteban Meletiche led off with a double down the leftfield line and moved on to third when the leftfielder had trouble getting a grip of the ball.
Meletiche came in to score when Andrew Siano grounded to short and the Red Dragons tired to cut him down at the plate, however Meletiche slid under the tag for a 1-0 Keystone lead.
The Red Dragons strung together a couple of hits and a walk in the second to take a 2-1 lead. Chris Jackson led off with a walk and after a fly out, Alex Coffey and Bryan Mistretta put together back-to-back hits to knot the score at one. An RBI groundout by Justin Fredenburg pushed the margin to 2-1.
Keystone put their first two runners on in the bottom of the second when Lance Ratchford and Gabe Torres connected on singles and loaded the bases when Brian Del Rosso drew a base on balls. However, a strike out and fly out ended the threat.
Cortland added another run in the third by again using a pair of hits and walk to load the bases with no one out. After a sacrifice fly scored Cortland's third run of the game, the Giants avoided further damage as Andew Siano recorded an out on a liner to right and then doubled off John Ardonetto off second.
Andy Vega connected on a two out triple off the leftfield wall in the bottom of the frame, but was left stranded when Cortland shortstop John Adornetto robbed Gabe Torres of a possible RBI with an outstanding leap and grab.
The Red Dragons tacked on another run in the fifth when for the second consecutive inning they put runners on second and third. After failing to score in the fourth, a Kris Gentzke sacrifice fly finally pushed one across, extending the lead to 4-1. Roberto Santana reached on a two out error by the leftfielder in the bottom half, but Keystone could not cut into the deficit.
Keystone finally put something together in the sixth, scoring twice to draw within 4-3. Andy Vega led off with base hit and was followed up by a Gabe Torres hit which was mishandled in center allowing runners to move to second and third. Ratchford followed with an RBI groundout to make it 4-2.
Kumar Piar entered as a pinch hitter for the Giants and promptly delivered a base hit to left center to bring around Torres as the Giants drew within one. Cortland avoided any further damage by turning an inning ending double play.
The Giants finally drew even in the seventh as Meletiche once again got things started. After Siano sacrificed him to second he advanced to third on a Roberto Santana groundout. Bryan Henry picked up a big two-out RBI with an infield single to deep short to knot things at four.
Cortland threatened once again in the eight, but a superb double play by Meletiche, Ratchford and Frank Mormino ended things quickly. The Giants also put together a threat of their own, putting runners on the corners with two outs, but the Red Dragons got out of it with an inning ending ground ball.
