Chiaramonte and Cashman battle in great matchup
One half of the pitchers dual was MacArthur's Joe Chiaramonte. (April 23, 2012) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
If you like pitching duels, one of the best I have seen took place today at MacArthur between MacArthur and Hicksville. MacArthur Joe Chiaramonte pitched eight innings and allowed one hit, walked two and struck out 11. He threw 98 pitches.
Hicksville’s Kevin Cashman pitched nine innings and allowed five hits -- three infield singles -- walked three, including one intentional, hit two batters and struck out 11 over 99 pitches.
Fittingly, the game ended in a scoreless tie after 10 innings as the game was called due to darkness.
Chiaramonte retired the first 14 batters he faced, including a stretch of seven consecutive strikeouts, before issuing a two-out walk in the fifth.
“I was really mad,” Chiaramonte said. “I lost a couple of grips on my fastball. It’s tough not to win, but that’s baseball. The curveball was breaking well and my fastball velocity was good. I was hitting corners, curveball was great. It was the best stuff I had all year. Our defense was there and are hitting wasn’t. It’s more of a negative. We have to work harder. We just want to get to the promise land and get rid of the 1994 and bring it to 2012.”
He was referring to the last time MacArthur won a county championship, although the Generals are a consistent contender.
Cashman pitched nine innings and allowed five hits -- three infield singles -- walked three, including one intentional, hit two batters and struck out 11 over 99 pitches.
“It was a tremendous effort,” Hicksville coach Frank Ciaramitaro said. “He seemed to get better and better each inning. If we took the lead, he might have pitched the 10th inning. He wanted to.”
Said Cashman: “It’s a great accomplishment to play with them. Competing against MacArthur is a great accomplishment.”
Hicksville (6-3-2, 4-1-2) had one runner at third base all game, while MacArthur (8-1-1, 5-1-1) left 10 runners on base, including the bases loaded with one out in the 10th inning before Charlie Stange got two strikeouts to end the inning.
MacArthur had the bases loaded in the seventh and one out. After a strikeout, pinch runner Dylan Pearce was thrown out trying to steal home.
“That’s the kind of thing we resorting to doing because we couldn’t do anything with the bats,” Costello said.
MacArthur sophomore Adam Heidenfelder took over in the ninth and struck out the side got three strikeouts in the 10th as he worked around a double and hit batsman.
Heidenfelder pitched for the junior varsity for the first two weeks of the season and struck out 12 in a row in his last start at that level. Since he was dominant, he was called up to the varsity and he showed why in his second appearance with the Generals.
MacArthur scored 90 runs in its first nine games, but couldn’t get a big hit against Hicksville.
“It was very frustrating,” Costello said. “The Hicksville pitcher pitched great. We need to have more competitive at-bats in big spots. I don’t mind if we make out as long as their good at-bats. We had some awful at-bats. Give Hicksville credit. It’s not about the zeros. It’s about the quality of at-bats.”
