The Berkeley Carroll bench began to empty toward home plate as the Poly Prep players and coaches held their breath while Will Regan lofted a ball toward the right field foul line.
Fair and the Lions would cap a wild seventh inning comeback with a two-run walk off single — foul and Poly would get one more chance to close out its borough rival.
“I’m thinking ‘go foul,’ ” said Blue Devils coach Matt Roventini. “That’s what I’m thinking. ‘Go foul. Go foul.’ Like Carlton Fisk, but the other direction.”
Roventini and his team got their wish as the ball landed just a few inches foul. Freshman reliever Nick Storz would go on to strike out Regan, setting the stage for a heart pounding 4–3 Poly Prep victory over Berkeley Carroll in a battle of the best private school baseball teams in Brooklyn on Monday at MCU Park.
“I thought the game was over right there,” Blue Devils starter Morgan Gray said. “I knew Nicky was going to punch him out in the end.”
The inning started quietly as Gray recorded the first two outs. Consecutive doubles by Gill Ferguson and Ian Miller made it 4–2 and chased Gray from the game. Nick Mulitz came on in relief, but struggled with his control. He walked the next two batters on eight pitches, forcing Roventini to bring in freshman Nick Storz from right field, without warming up, to face Regan. Miller attempted to steal home and balk was called on Storz to make it 4–3 and it appeared Regan had given his team the win, but Berkeley Carroll’s celebration was stopped short.
“That game came down to a matter of inches,” Miller said. “That was really intense.”
The Blue Devils (16–3) scored the eventual winning run on a sac fly by Rob Calabrese in the top of the seventh to make it 4–1. It came after Berkeley Carroll (13–2–1) got on the board when Miller stole home after a Feldman single in the bottom of the sixth, but left the bases loaded with two outs. Roventini felt his team responding with a run was pivotal to the victory.
“That goes to show me we know how to play baseball,” he said. “To me, that was the biggest point of the game for us.”
The Lions missed a chance to get to Gray earlier when Richard Palacios was caught stealing home with runners on first and third and no out in the first inning. The Poly ace was starting for the first time in four weeks after irritating a protruding disk in his back against Horace Mann on April 9. He’s thrown just four pitches in relief since then, but wanted to pitch this game after losing to Berkeley Carroll 1–0 in the regular season last year. The Brown-bound Gray was excellent. He allowed just five hits over six-and-two-thirds innings of work while striking out six.
Poly on the other hand was able to scratch out runs against the Harvard-bound Miller. Storz, who was two-for-two with two runs scored, came home on a throwing error in the second and scored on a Matt Zapata double in the fourth. An Isaiah Russell ground out made it 3–0 later in the frame.
“We have to come out strong against Ian,” Storz said. “He’s a great pitcher.”
On this day Poly was the better team. The two clubs hope this isn’t the last time they face each other. The Blue Devils beat Berkeley in the private school state tournament semifinals last season. Another playoff date is just fine by them.
“I’m hoping it’s going to be the same battle in the championship game,” Gray said. “Us two.”
