Robert Jeffrey

Knights clash with Warriors; Advance to Section IV Semi-Finals

WINDHAM- In baseball, pitching wins ballgames and that is precisely what the Afton Crimson Knights had on their side Monday afternoon. The Crimson Knights moved past the Warriors of Windham-Ashland- Jewett in the quarterfinals of the Section IV Class D tournament by a final score of 7-4.

In the first inning of play the Crimson Knights took little time getting on the scoreboard via the route of small ball. Zach Alford who went 3 for 4 on the day with 3 runs scored, started the game off with a bunt single, and in the subsequent at-bat of Brody Oleksak stole second base. After a Colin Nabinger single allowing Alford to advance, Alford scored from third base on a Vincent Caiati sacrifice fly.

The lead wouldn’t last long as Afton’s Nabinger experience some slight turbulence on the mound. A pair of one out walks, placing runners on first and second allowed for the Warriors to plate two runs on back-to-back singles from Pettignano and Emerton to put WAJ up 2-1. Despite some early mistakes, Nabinger settled back into all-star form, striking out 14 Warrior batters, despite allowing four runs on nine hits and two walks in a complete game win.

It wouldn’t be until the third inning were the Crimson Knights to regain the lead. After a Zach Alford lead off bunt-single, it took the combination of a Nabinger RBI single, Tyler King two RBI single and a Kyle Grover RBI single for the boys of Afton to reclaim the lead at 5-2.

Aided by the aforementioned lights-out pitching from Nabinger, the Warrior’s last chance was in the seventh inning but it was too late as Afton held a 7-2 advantage. To the credit of the Windham-Ashland-Jewett ball club, the Warriors managed to plate a pair of runs, but evidently fell short to the Crimson Knights 7-4.

Colin Nabinger went 3 for 4 from the dish, scoring one run while knocking in two runs to help his own cause on the mound. Vincent Caiati and Tyler King each recorded two RBIs, with Caiati scoring one run of his own. King, Caiati, and Grover each stole a base with Alford and Nabinger swiping two bags a piece.

The fourth seeded Crimson Knights (10-6) advance to the Section IV Class D semi-finals where they are scheduled to play the number one seeded Deposit/Hancock (19-1) at Hancock with game time slated for 4:30pm on Wednesday May 24.

Afton: 1 0 4 0 0 0 2 – 7 10 2

WAJ: 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 – 4 9 0

WP- Nabinger LP- Pettignano

2B- WAJ: Honge, Pettignano.

3B- Afton: Caiati

Downsville ‘downs’ Oxford in Section IV Quarterfinals