The Shelton Gaels battled back from a 6 – 2 deficit and scored 8 unanswered runs to defeat the Jonathan Law Thursday, 10 – 6.
The Gaels will advance to the SCC Championship game for the first time since 2000 on Saturday. They’ll play Amity.
The Gaels were off to an early 2 – 0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Dan St. George started things off with a double and was driven in by cleanup hitter, Mike Georgalas. Ryan Daiss knocked in Georgalas with an RBI single. Daiss was driven in by Tom Carroll with a line drive RBI single.
The Lawmen bounced back in their half of the first inning with two runs of their own off Shelton starting pitcher, Eric Christensen.
The Lawmen came back for more in the second inning, adding four runs to take a 6 – 2 lead.
“At first I didn’t have my stuff. I think was a little overanxious. I was getting behind and I was leaving all my balls up,” Christensen said. “We were down early and we thought all hope was lost.”
Christensen shut the Lawmen down in the third inning and didn’t allow another run for the rest of the game.
“I tried to hit my spots more and I just calmed down,” Christensen said.
The Gaels came back and tied the game in the fourth inning to make the score 6 – 6, taking advantage of two Law fielding errors and a clutch RBI single by Georgalas.
“We felt like we had the momentum when we tied the game and we just took off from there,” Christensen said.The Gaels would take the lead, 7 – 6 after a Daiss double and a follow-up RBI double by Tom Carroll.
“I was pretty happy,” Carroll said. “I didn’t hit last game and didn’t really contribute. I just came in, was calm – relaxed aggression. We’re having a better season than last season and last season was great.”
“It’s something special when you get to play for a championship.” said Gael’s coach Scott Gura. “I knew when it was 6 – 2 in the third inning that there was really still a lot of game left with the way we hit the ball. Tom Carroll did a great job coming in, closing the door and preserving the victory.”