Baseball: Section I, Group IV Championship: Randolph 7, Wayne Valley 2

Through the first four innings this game was a pitcher’s duel between Randolph junior right Tyler Poulin and Wayne Valley senior Mike D’Amato. Both pitchers allowed runners on base, but there was no score until the fifth inning.

In the top of the fifth, Randolph left fielder Scott Levinson led off with a single and with two outs scored on a double to center field by right fielder Dave Sacco. Wayne Valley tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the inning. Senior Matt Marks led off with a single and stole second base. With one out, Poulin intentionally walked senior Anthony Simone and the next batter, senior Chris Santaniello, singled to score Marks and tied the game 1-1.

The Rams (24-6) went down 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth and Poulin gave up a single in the bottom of the inning but escaped further trouble on a fielder’s choice to send the game to the seventh.

After Randolph went up 2-1 in the top of the 7th, Wayne Valley then pulled its starting pitcher Mike D’Amato and junior Jake Anderson took the mound. Anderson has been brilliant all year long, earning a 4-1 record and three saves. Randolph, with the aid of a fielding error, tacked on five more runs to go up 7-1. Power hitting Randolph is averaging nearly 10 runs per gam.

Marks opened the bottom of the 7th inning with a single and with one out came around to score on a single by senior Chris Santaniello to cut the lead to 7-2. Junior Mike Elia followed with a single to load the bases, but Randolph got out of the jam.


Chris Santaniello was 3-for-4 with two RBI for Wayne Valley (22-7). Scott Levinson was 3-for-4 with two runs for Randolph.