Seaford earns sweep of Clarke

A 10:30 a.m. start on April 13 is the only thing that saved the Conference A-V baseball series finale between Clarke and Seaford from ending in a tie because of darkness.

The teams battled for more than four hours before visiting Seaford finally broke through in the top of the 13th inning and completed a three-game sweep with a 2-1 victory. The Vikings won it on a run-scoring single to left off the bat of junior Nick Calandra, who brought home senior Carter Skretch with two outs.

Seaford junior Matt Corominas pitched into the sixth inning in his first varsity appearance and yielded one run on five hits, while junior Tommy DiPrizito and seniors Greg Rosenberg, Andrew Pich and A.J. Cain combined for eight innings of shutout relief. Clarke seniors Corey Rosenblum and Kemal Deljanin were equally impressive on the mound.

“Our pitchers did everything to keep the game winnable,” Seaford coach Mike Milano said. “All five of them threw strikes and made plays. To hold a team of Clarke’s caliber to three runs in a series is a tremendous accomplishment.”

The Rams (2-4-1) suffered their first three-game sweep in coach Tom Abruscato’s 19-year tenure. They scored in the bottom of the first when senior Vinny Trovato knocked in senior E.J. Cumbo on a bases-loaded groundout. They loaded the bases again with two outs in the ninth but couldn’t cash in.

“Seaford did a great job, not to take anything away from them but our overall approach at the plate has been poor,” Abruscato said. “We have a detailed plan that we’ve always followed but we haven’t been following it.

“We executed every other aspect of the game,” he added. “Our pitching and defense, especially our small-ball defense, was strong. We have to get the offense up to its potential.”

Clarke managed just two hits in six extra innings while Seaford (5-1) threatened in each of the last five after Deljanin struck out the side in the eighth on 11 pitches. Senior Mike Tito drove in the Vikings’ first run in the top of the second on a grounder that brought home junior John Leonardi. The visitors loaded the bases in the fifth and 11th with just one out, but Rosenbloom and Deljanin escaped the respective jams.

A day earlier, Clarke ended a 13-inning scoreless drought in the series with two runs in the top of the seventh but Seaford held on for a 3-2 home victory. Junior Zach Grof tossed five innings with seven strikeouts and walked off the bump with a two-run lead thanks to RBI singles off the bats of seniors Christian Alfano and Jake Palmer.

The Vikings opened the series with a 14-0 road victory on April 10. They sent 11 batters to the plate in the top of the second and scored seven runs to bust the game open. Skretch had four hits and four RBIs, and Cain drove in three runs and struck out six in six innings of work.