WCI’s baseball ‘boys of chilly, wet spring’ heat up for first TVRA victory

Woodstock CI catcher Tyler LaFleur (right) heads toward College Avenue Knights first baseman Zack Walker (left), attempting to score from third on a sac fly to left. The two came together at home plate, Walker scoring ahead of LaFleur’s diving tag, which adding injury to insult, also resulted in an unintentional, painful and ultimately bloody facial collision with Walker’s left knee. (Jeff Tribe photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

Zack Molinaro had both the short memory and intestinal fortitude required to walk back onto the pitcher’s mound two hours after being walked off it.

“I mean, we had the lead,” the Woodstock CI Red Devils shortstop/relief pitcher responded after closing out a 7-2 Thames Valley Regional Athletics Southeast baseball victory over the Woodstock College Avenue (CASS) Knights Tuesday, May 5 at Woodstock’s Tip O’Neill Field. “I just had to hold it.”

Downplay it as he might, Molinaro wasn’t heading into an easy situation. Roughly two hours earlier, he’d left a bottom of the seventh changeup down the middle of the plate. Woodstock Huron Park’s D. Roth turned it into a two-out, game-winning RBI single, plating M. Bowes to break a 3-3 tie in dramatic fashion.

The Red Devils had built a far more comfortable five-run cushion heading into the final inning of the second game of an all-Woodstock doubleheader. Reliever Xeng Ngo-Simmons was looking to close out WCI’s first regular season victory on a chilly, grey day against the backdrop of gentle drizzle turning into more determined rainfall, far from ideal from a pitcher’s grip on the ball perspective.

He would walk the first two batters he faced, both on full counts, and after going 2-0 on CASS second baseman Cole Elliott, Molinaro got the call from the bullpen. Following an opening strike, he finished out the walk, loading the bases with none out.

Before facing, as legendary catcher Yogi Berra is reported to have said, ‘Deja Vu all over again’, Molinaro bore down, greeting Knights first baseman Zack Walker with a first pitch strike. Finding his groove, Molinaro would go on to strike out the side with just nine additional pitches, an 0-2 ball on CASS pinch hitter Wyatt Box, the lone blemish on a heavily modified, delayed ‘immaculate inning.’

“Once I got the reset, I could just flow,” Molinaro smiled.

WCI had taken a 2-1 lead through four complete, Walker leading off the top of the fifth with a single down the third baseline. With the ball bobbled in left, he kept going to second, adding another 90 feet to third base on an errant throw. Walker would score on a sac fly to left, Red Devils starting catcher Tyler LaFleur forced to go to his right to gather in an offline throw, diving back to the plate in a bang-bang play and subsequent collision that both added to the backstop’s facial scars and would force his removal.

“I was going pretty quick,” said Walker, feeling bad that a purely unintentional collision had bloodied his Woodstock Wranglers U18 teammate. “He dove right into my knee.”

The Red Devils would regain and add to their lead in the home half of the fifth, Molinaro, Owen Gower and Preston Hilderley loading the bases with a pair of walks and an error, respectively. Sully MacDougall delivered a two-RBI base hit, going to second on the throw home. A third walk, Duncan Murphy's base hit and a wild pitch accounted for three additional Red Devils runs, building a 7-2 advantage, living through the game’s time-limited conclusion.

“It’s a game of momentum,” said Molinaro. “You start one thing and it keeps going.”

“You want to keep getting more,” agreed MacDougall.

Although arguably disappointed with the result, Knights shortstop Easton Freeman was pleased with the overall effort.

“Hit better than we usually do. We’re getting better.”

“We battled,” added CASS coach Sean Latimer. “We’ve done a good job this year of not quitting. We always play hard until the game is over.”

As a young team, the Knights have put two wins into the standings while continuing to improve through the season’s ups and downs.

“So, there’s a lot of learning going on,” Latimer concluded.

Having been close previously, Molinaro was happy to see the Red Devils record their first victory, looking for ongoing improvement both in the standings and weather, allowing every baseball team to be the ‘boys of summer’ rather than ‘wet, chilly spring.’

“Hopefully, need to be heating up right now.”