Anthony Cascione’s bases loaded, 2-RBI single highlighted a four-run second inning as the NewCanaanite.com Royals beat the Stamford Insurance Group Astros 12-6 to capture the New Canaan Baseball Triple-A Championship Wednesday night at Mellick Field.
“It feels good,” said younger brother Giovanni Cascione, who added a hit and pitched two scoreless innings in the win. “Our team just hit the ball and had like no errors. Except for one.”
Front (l-r): Stephen Riccardi, Luke Hickey, Cooper Dinan, Edward Graham. 2nd Row: Justin Embarquez, Anthony Cascione, Henry Sokolowski, Trey Hartnett, Giovanni Cascione, Walker Blair Gentner, Robert Harris, Edward Gentner. Rear: Nick Cascione, Tim Hartnett, Terry Dinan. Credit: Jen Gentner
Winning pitcher Trey Hartnett got the Royals off on the right foot, recording two assists and one putout on balls hit back to the box in the first inning. The Royals were able to draw first blood in the bottom of the inning, as an unintentional-intentional walk to slugger Justin Embarquez loaded the bases with two outs. Luke Hickey followed with a bases on balls to thwart the Astros’ strategy, forcing in leadoff hitter Stephen Riccardi—who reached base safely in all three plate appearances—with the game’s first run.
The Astros would take the lead in the top of the second, as clutch two-out RBI hits by Nick Burns and Daniel Rogers led to three Astros’ runs and a 3-1 lead. The Royals would answer right back, as Cascione’s big hit was the centerpiece of the second inning.
Cooper Dinan led off the inning with a single to left and stole second. After a walk to Edward Gentner, Henry Sokolowski reached on an infield single, setting up Cascione’s 2-RBI liner to right.
“I just swung the bat and made it happen,” Cascione told NewCanaanite.com. “And that was it.”
Robert Harris and Hartnett added RBIs to extend to a 5-3 Royals advantage.
The Astros would not go down quietly, scratching across another run in the top of the third inning to close the gap to 5-4 with hits from Justin Mastroianni, Phil Etergino and Beckett Walters. The Royals—following their coaches’ philosophy of “winning innings”—responded again, this time scoring two runs on RBI hits from Luke Hickey and Edward “Moonlight” Graham to take a 7-4 lead into the fourth inning.
Giovanni Cascione came on to pitch scoreless fourth and fifth innings for the Royals, striking out five batters with an eclectic mix of pitches.
“I threw one knuckleball, a couple of two-seamers and the rest four-seamers,” Cascione said. “I only had the signal to throw one knuckleball. I wanted to throw more, but my dad [Royals head coach Nick Cascione] would probably get mad at me that I ignored the signs. And at Coach Dinan for teaching me it.”
Meanwhile the Royals’ offense blew the game open in the fourth. Big hits from Giovanni Cascione, Hartnett, Embarquez and a double to the fence from Sokolowski led to five Royals runs to make it 12-4 after 4. Astros pitcher Brendan Holahan did a tremendous job of stopping the Royals offense in the fifth, helped out by great catching from Ty Groff. Even so, Cascione’s solid pitching and excellent fielding by third baseman Walker Blair kept the Astros at bay as the game headed to the final stanza.
The Astros would make things interesting in the top of the sixth, scoring twice and loading the bases with one out to make it a 12-6 game. Royals head coach then called on Ebarquez, who recorded the final two outs of the game via the strikeout to secure the championship.
The Royals were:
Walker Blair, Anthony Cascione, Giovanni Cascione, Cooper Dinan, Justin Embarquez, Edward Gentner, Edward Graham, Robert Harris, Trey Hartnett, Luke Hickey, Stephen Riccardi and Henry Sokolowski. Nick Cascione was the head coach, assisted by Tim Hartnett and Terry Dinan.