JJ Palumbo's double gives Clarke first win in series with Calhoun

After five innings, it looked like Clarke’s baseball team would find itself on the brink of elimination as it has all postseason.

Calhoun’s Brian Chin had shut out the Rams entering the sixth, but the Clarke players believed they were close to breaking through.

JJ Palumbo did just that, driving in two runs on a two-out double to leftfield to give No. 4 Clarke the lead and a 3-1 victory over No. 1 Calhoun in first of the three-game Nassau Class A championship series Sunday at SUNY Farmingdale.

“I knew I just had to slow down the moment and look for that first pitch fastball,” Palumbo said. “He gave it to me inside and I just turned on it.”

Pitcher Nick Berasti started the rally by poking a one-out single to rightfield before stealing second.

“We were just trying to get runners in scoring position however we could,” Berasti said.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Nick Giardino beat out an infield single to plate Berasti and tie the score at 1. Then Palumbo hit the difference-maker.

“Nothing changed, we just finally got a hit or two with runners in scoring position,” coach Tom Abruscato said. “We had some good at-bats all game against a top-line pitcher.”

Calhoun’s defense kept Clarke (22-5-1) off the board in the early innings. Palumbo got thrown out at home by rightfielder Ben Koch in the first and third baseman Charlie Imhoff dove to rob Giancarlo Rengifo of an RBI single in the third.

Berasti held Calhoun (23-3) to one run on two hits over six innings.

After winning six elimination games to get to the final series, Clarke has room to breathe for the first time this postseason.

“A game is a game to us,” Abruscato said. “There’s no such thing as being ahead.”

Clarke will look to clinch its eighth county championship in game two at Farmingdale on Monday at 2 p.m.

“It feels great knowing that we had to fight very hard from behind to get where we are now,” Palumbo said. “We’re just excited and locked in for tomorrow.”