La Salle Baseball Forces Deciding Game for City Championship
Wednesday, May 31, 2017 – With their backs against the wall, the La Salle Cardinals baseball team came out with their claws sharp to force a deciding game by way of an 8-3 victory over Nazareth at Fordham University. With the win, La Salle will get a shot to win our first Varsity Championship in over a decade.
Senior pitcher Danny Maria, making his last start for La Salle, was magnificent, throwing 6 2/3 innings giving up three earned runs with seven strikeouts and only one walk. Cesar Santana picked up the final out on a strikeout as Nazareth tried to mount a two-out rally.
Senior Billy Gonzalez also had a big day going 2 for 4 with a triple and 2 RBIs. Jimmy Muniz also contributed two hits and a run scored. For the second time in as many days, the La Salle offense struck first as speedy Gilbert Santos, Jr. was able to squeeze past Nazareth’s pitcher, who was covering home on a wild pitch. In the second the Cardinals batted around and put up 5 runs, to give them the comfort of the lead which they never gave back.
The Cardinals will face the Nazareth Kingsmen, one more time, for the CHSAA Varsity “A” Division Championship. The game will take place on Friday, June 2nd at St. John’s University in Queens at 4:00pm.