James Madison senior Jonathan Farina waited long enough. After injuring his throwing arm last month, the southpaw pitcher’s PSAL first round playoff start against Evander Childs was threatened to be postponed by rain yesterday.
Farina’s sure glad it wasn’t.
Making his second start since the injury, Farina was near flawless, pitching a complete game shutout in No. 1 James Madison’s 3-0 win over No. 32 Evander Childs.
James Madison will face Cardozo, a 5-4 winner over W.C. Bryant yesterday.
“I was looking to get ahead all day,” Farina said. “I was trying to work the outside and throw some off-speed after getting the fastball going.”
Farina struck out eight, allowed no walks and three hits, but no runner ever advanced past second. Evander senior Nicolas Rosario accounted for two hits, but he was picked off first by Farina both times he reached base.
“Playoffs are a whole different story,” Madison catcher Eric Gutierrez said. “It’s a totally different mindset. You have to play like it’s the championship game every time.”
Madison head coach Vincent Caiazza said of Farina, “He had some pop, but his off-speed stuff was really working. He was keeping it down and keeping them off stride. He had a really good outing.”
In the fourth inning of a scoreless game, Evander Childs (7-10) began toying with the notion of knocking off Madison (17-0), on the latter’s field.
After two walks, Evander’s starting pitcher, Ariel Suriel had runners on first and third. He had recorded two outs, which included the freshman climbing a fence to make a spectacular catch on a pop-out. He had two strikes on Madison’s Joseph Hecker. He was about to escape.
then, Madison head coach Vincent Caiazza signaled for a double steal.
“We instructed the runner to take a huge lead so they would try and pick him off and get him in a rundown,” Caiazza said. “The runner on third has to be aware of the timing.”
Gutierrez was more than ready. He took off for home when Carlos Guerrero got caught in a run down and the senior catcher managed to score before Guerrero was tagged out.
Madison added two insurance runs in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by senior Michael Triolo and a double by Gutierrez.
“We knew every game was going to be tough,” Caiazza said. “They’re going to come at you with their best pitcher since it’s a one game elimination.
“We had a great game on the mound, we played good defense and got a few key hits.”
