BACK-TO_BACK CHAMPS!

Saratoga Central Catholic wins second-straight Class C state title in baseball

Saratoga Central Catholic baseball team is all smiles after winning their second-straight Class C state baseball title after a 4-1 win over Kendall on June 13 at Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton. (Photo courtesy of Sam Caron)

Longtime Saratoga Central Catholic baseball coach Alphonse “Phonsey” Lambert made a bet with his team at the start of the season: If the Saints — who won their first state championship in baseball last season — won back-to-back titles, he would shave his head.

The Saints (23-3) continued their amazing run of baseball and captured their second-straight Class C state title with a 4-1 win against Kendall at Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton on June 13. And later that night, Lambert made good on his bet.

“Every March we go to Florida and the tradition is that we have this outfielder and his name is Martin Elie and he has a nice head of hair and the tradition is (the players) shave his head,” Lambert said. “So (senior captain) Carson (Moser) says to me, ‘Coach, if we win (the state title again), can we shave your head?’ I said, ‘Yeah, fine,’ not thinking anything. And we are on the bus ride home (after winning) and Carson says, ‘Coach, remember the Martin thing?’ And he says you are going to get shaved tonight. Each kid got a swipe but it was all good.”

In the final against Kendall, senior captain Pierce Byrne, who pitched a one-hitter in last year’s Class C final, again was the star in striking out 10 while scattering eight hits over seven innings.

“Pierce was laboring in the third, fourth and fifth innings,” Lambert said of the Siena-bound pitcher. “He kept getting the leadoff guy on … but it seemed like in the sixth inning he found an extra gear and he just blew them out in the last two innings to win the game.”

Offensively, senior captain Kihl Kelly had a two-run single, scored a run after a walk, steal and throwing error and Byrne’s RBI single plated Joey Lindner. 

Lambert was also quick to point to the team’s gritty 5-3 win over Tuckahoe in the state semifinals on June 12. Trailing 3-1 late in the game, the Saints could do very little against Tuckahoe pitcher Connor Brice, who is headed to Villanova. Brice, however, reached the pitch limit of 125 and the Saints bats came alive for the late win. The game featured a three-hour rain delay as well as dominant performance on the mound by junior captain Luke Dejnozka after the weather cleared.

“I felt that if we could keep it close and manufacture some runs (in the state semifinals and final), we would have a good chance to win either game. If we got down four or five runs, we would be in trouble,” Lambert said. “We don’t have the offensive power that we had last year. We have hitters in our lineup but this wasn’t a team that hit in bunches. … Throughout the season we didn’t have this offensive onslaught. We had to fight and claw and do everything we could to win games and fortunately for us we did.”