The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Staples denies Amity’s bid for fifth straight title
MIDDLETOWN » The Drive for Five got thwarted by a shining Knight.
Amity’s bid for a fifth straight Class LL state title fell short on Saturday afternoon at Palmer Field, where Chad Knight pitched and hit Staples to a 5-1 victory in the championship game.
Knight, just a sophomore, tossed a five-hitter and helped his own cause with a two-run homer that put the Wreckers up for good in the top of the fifth.
“We’re state champs, that’s all I can say,” Knight said afterwards. “It’s a great day to be a Wrecker.”
It’s Staples’ second state title in school history and first in LL. The Wreckers won the Class L title in 2001. They lost in the LL title game two years ago to Amity, when Knight was an eighth-grader — one of an unprecedented four straight state titles for the Spartans.
“Amity’s a great team, they have a great coach, a great program. You don’t win four state championships in a row unless you are,” Knight noted. “To beat them, especially because we lost to them ... This is just surreal. It’s unbelievable to knock out such a great team and say we’re state champs.”
For top-seeded Amity, there was shock and the unusual sight of tears in the postgame handshake line.
“The disappointment has nothing to do with losing,” said coach Sal Coppola. “It’s just some of these kids have won two and three championships and are just absolutely great players. It was emotional, just because I’m not gonna see them on the field anymore. That’s what it’s all about. Win or lose, we got here. Baseball is a tough game to play oneand-done.”
Amity ace Max Scheps seemed to struggle from the start, walking two and hitting a pair of batters over the first four frames. Still, he had a 1-0 lead after the Spartans plated a run in the bottom of the fourth.
It could have been more, however.
Knight loaded the bases with three straight walks with one out. Adam Hurwitz grounded out to second to plate a run, and Knight struck out Matt Sabitsky to avoid further damage.
“We were close to maybe getting Chad out of there,” Coppola noted. “We were one hit away from maybe putting up three instead of one in that fourth inning. It turned out to be big. An extra hit would have been nice.”
No. 11 Staples bounced right back to take the lead for good in the fifth.
No. 9 hitter Harry Azadian led off with a single and scored on Chris Drbal’s triple to deep center. Knight stroked the very next pitch over the center field fence, a prodigious blast even if the wind was blowing out at Palmer.
“I was running as hard as I could out of the box,” said Knight. “Once I saw it go over the wall, I was just ecstatic. That was big, we got two runs there. Luckily, we were able to tack some more on in that final inning.”
Ben Casparius and Mike Fanning followed with singles, and it appeared the Wreckers were in for a huge inning. But Scheps fielded Matt Stone’s sacrifice bunt attempt and gunned down Caparius at third (Rohan Patel made a nice catch and tag on Scheps’s low throw). Max Popken’s flyout to right moved runners to second and third with two outs, and with Drew Rogers at the plate, Scheps uncorked a pitch that got by catcher Pat Winkel.
However, Winkel retrieved the ball in time to flip the ball to Scheps, nailing Fanning easily at the plate and preventing any further damage in the inning.
Amity’s only other scoring chance came in the bottom of the fifth. With two on and one out, Winkel stepped to the plate and popped the first pitch foul, where shortstop Popken made a sliding catch. The runners, Andy and Teddy Hague, smartly moved up a base (Andy Hague barely slid in safely to third).
But Knight got cleanup hitter Jack Nolan to fly out to deep center on a 3-2 pitch, ending the threat.
Amity only managed one bunt single the rest of the way. Staples added two more runs in the seventh, including an RBI double by Casparius, who broke the CIAC hits record in the process.
“Towards the end I started cramping up and getting tired,” Scheps confessed. “I started missing high with curveballs, and they took advantage of those pitches. In baseball, that stuff happens.”
It was the 200th win of Staples coach Jack McFarland’s career.
“I’m in a kid business, I want kids to be happy,” he said. “All you can ask as a program is to play for championships. We’ve been in five FCIAC championships, two state finals. That’s who we want to be as a program.”
While it may take a few days to see through the tears, Amity’s 11 seniors can look back at its historic state title run with great pride.
“We’ve had great seasons,” said Scheps, who’ll pitch at West Point next year. “It just comes from hard work. Our team is a family. We just didn’t come out on top today. Staples played a great game, they had a great pitcher. Chad Knight threw exceptional. We just didn’t have it today. It happens.”
“I can’t be mad. We went 25-3, just an amazing record. It shows we’re a hardworking team. They just bested us.”
Added Coppola: “We knew coming in this was gonna be a battle. They have some stud players on that team — the Casparius kid and Chad Knight is a hell of a hitter and a hell of a pitcher. We were gonna have to play a good game, and it was nip and tuck for a while. We threw a 1-0 curveball and Chad Knight ripped it. We were an inch from catching the one before it that went over our centerfielder’s head. And when we got up, we hit the ball hard a few times and flew out deep near the fence. That’s baseball, it really is.”