Sports
Darien Baseball Drops Heartbreaker To Stamford
Blue Wave loses the game 3-2 on an error in the seventh inning for third straight loss
The Darien boys varsity baseball team fell to the Stamford Black Knights, 3-2, on a windy Wednesday afternoon, allowing the winning run to score on an error with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
After Stamford erased a 2-1 deficit in the seventh, Steve Orgera came home from third when Steve Hagedus fly ball was dropped in the outfield to end the game.
"When I got up there, I pretty much just tried to make contact with the ball and find a gap," Hagedus said. "I got a little under it and with the wind, it was hard to [determine] where it would end up, but I'm happy with the result."
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Hagedus' final at-bat was foreshadowed by his 348-foot almost-home run in the bottom of the sixth that bounced off the top of the fence and into the glove of Darien outfielder Tommy Blankemeier for a long single.
Stamford took the lead in the bottom of the third when Mike Summa's RBI single scored Mike Melendez from third.
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Darien (4-3) tied it in the top of the fourth on John Gardner's run-scoring single that dropped into right field. The hit scored Justin Pryor, who earlier turned a mishandled hit down the right field line into a triple.
Darien took advantage of some pivotal mistakes by the Black Knights in the sixth to grab a 2-1 lead, as a fumbled groundball at third base allowed Dan Pidgeon to reach on an error. Pidgeon moved up on a sacrifice and scored when Gardner's line drive was misplayed in left.
Darien had its share of errors as well, the most glaring being the dropped fly ball in the seventh.
"We had a couple of tough plays there over the course of the game," Darien coach Mike Scott said. "A lot of it wasn't executed well."
In addition to strong winds, both teams were up against some excellent pitching. Stamford's Tom McIntosh, who pitched the entire game, gave the Black Knights (6-1) their sixth consecutive win after striking out nine.
Blue Wave pitcher Andrew Hurn also went the distance and fanned seven.
The team is away on Friday for a 4 p.m. game against Wilton.
