PRHS 10 – Curtis 3
The Port Richmond Red Raiders were certainly in a charitable mood yesterday. First, they allowed the visiting Curtis Warriors (4-2), who are playing this entire season on the road due to field renovations, to call their Staten Island digs home for a day.
Then, they spotted Curtis a 2-0 first-inning lead.
But Port Richmond’s pockets soon grew deep and the Red Raiders’ offense went on the attack, collecting 12 hits off Curtis starter Matthew Bacchi en route to a 10-3 win.
The Red Raiders (8-1-1) began their assault in the top of the second when sophomore Joseph Kenney ripped a single to right. His older brother, Robert, a senior, followed with a single of his own to center.
After a Matthew Ginsberg popout, right-handed hitter Anthony Dimaso smacked a 2-1 fastball over the 290-foot sign in right to give Port Richmond a 3-2 lead the Red Raiders would never relinquish.
“We took advantage when we had base runners,” PR coach John Sce said. “We had some timely hits.”
Three of those hits were provided by second baseman Peter Botros. The senior made two errors in the first two innings that led to all three of Curtis’ runs. But instead of getting down, Botros decided to get tough at the plate.
He battled Bacchi (5 IP, 8 hits, 4 ER) in the third and blooped a single to center. After stealing second and third, he scored what would become the winning run on a Jeffrey Giza single.
“After that awful start, I knew I had to do something at the plate,” Botros said.
Another Red Raider who got off to bad start was pitcher Stephen Monjica.
He fell behind in the count against five of the first six batters he faced. Curtis’ Anthony Piccirili (2-4) singled to lead off the game and Thomas Downing (2-4) reached on a Botros error. Both scored on Mike Fanning’s single.
But the righty would yield only one more run through five innings of work before giving way to junior Javier Carreon, who pitched two shutout innings.
Curtis coach John Eberlein didn’t make excuses afterwards.
“Not having a home field isn’t the reason we lost,” Eberlein said. “Every team has to go through that when they get a new field. We just didn’t execute today. But it’s still early in the season. I know we’ll be OK.”
