St. John the Baptist baseball stuns Chaminade with walk-off win
Dominick Coniglio of St. John the Baptist reacts after knocking in the game-winning run with a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning against Chaminade on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Credit: James Escher
Somewhere at the bottom of the pile near first base, amid that red and white sea of happy humanity from St. John the Baptist’s baseball team, was poor, ecstatic Dominick Coniglio.
“I got stepped on a little bit, so that wasn’t very good,” the junior centerfielder said. “But it was fun. It was great. It was amazing.”
That it was. The Cougars were down by three with three outs to go on their chilly home turf Wednesday against three-time defending NSCHSAA champ and defending CHSAA Class AA state champ Chaminade. And they were still down by three with one out to go.
Then St. John the Baptist proceeded to score four runs to stun the Flyers, 4-3.
Rocco Cimino’s clutch three-run triple and Coniglio’s walk-off single allowed them to celebrate.
“It definitely helps our confidence a lot,” coach Ryan Dalton said. “This was a big win for our program. We haven’t beaten them in a few years, and I’m just really proud of the guys for stepping up and not giving up.
“We preach all year to never give up no matter what the situation is.”
This situation had the Cougars (2-3-1, 1-2) trailing, 3-0, heading for the home seventh.
Chaminade reliever Antonio Tufano retired the first batter. Christian Alicea then boomed a double to right. Jaxson Werner singled him to third. After a strikeout for out No. 2, Thomas Rorick walked.
Bases loaded.
Up stepped Cimino.
The senior second baseman ripped a 1-0 pitch into the leftfield corner — 3-3.
“We were due,” Cimino said. “We just needed that one breakout inning. We always had guys in the right spots. We were just missing that big hit.”
Coniglio followed with another, sending his single to center.
“Credit to them,” Chaminade coach Mike Pienkos said. “… Nothing you can do. That’s baseball. Ups and downs.”
The Flyers (4-2, 3-2) went up by three on an RBI double by Sean Sweeney and an RBI single by Michael Sweeney, Sean’s brother, in the top of the seventh against reliever and winning pitcher Joseph Rivera.
They had gone up, 1-0, on Peter Beisel’s sac fly in the fifth against starter Braden Davis, who didn’t allow a hit and fanned eight in five innings but walked six. Chaminade starter Matt Brandt yielded one hit and fanned seven in five innings but walked five.
“That’s Brandt,” Pienkos said. “He throws a bunch of pitches and he battles, but he’s hard to hit.”
