While the sky at Greenwich High School appeared ominous, the Big Red baseball team shined through as they beat Trumbull High School, 11-4.
With a six-run first inning, strong pitching, and fire in the seniors’ bellies as they celebrated their last regular season game, the Cardinals kept Trumbull at bay for all seven innings.
The first inning for the Cardinals was monumental, with six runs scored. Senior Alex Loparco belted a single in the first inning that drove in two runs.
That was after GHS outfielder Paul Williams launching another two-run single earlier in the frame. Fellow Cardinal Devin McGrath hit a double, stole third and plated a run off of an error for the seventh run of the game.
“We’ve been getting better every game,” Greenwich High School head coach Phil Tarantino said. “We played great the last two-and-a-half, three weeks. With baseball you keep working and things start happening positively. Today was sort of a culmination, and they played great.”
Senior pitcher Mike Genaro pitched a solid five innings for the win. Teammate Connor Langan threw for 2/3 innings, and Loparco closed with a scoreless seventh inning.
“I wanted to close the inning quick,” said Loparco. “I worked hard on my pitching, my coaches had confidence in me. I just wanted to get the job done.”
Up next for Greenwich is the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic conference class LL tournament, after they failed to qualify for the FCIACs. To qualify for the conference tourney the Cardinals needed a win against the Eagles, which they got, and a loss from Stamford in its final regular season game against New Canaan.
However, the Black Knights upset the Rams to qualify for the FCIAC’s No. 8 slot.
“We’ve had some tough losses, and I’m just proud of how they came back today,” said Tarantino. “Unfortunately Stamford won, and that’s hard. I told them, ‘Hey, we haven’t made a deep run in the [state tournament] in a while, so let that be our focus.’ I believe we can beat any team.”
“We’re going to take the weekend off, the sprint for the final month,” added the head coach.
While the tournament is just around the corner, the seniors celebrated their last regular season game with Senior Day.
Each senior received a chair with his name on the back, and topped off the great day with the win.
“I don’t use this word often, but I love this group,” said Tarantino. “As I told them yesterday, in a personal conversation with them, everything we have asked of them, they’ve done. They never questioned anything, they work as hard as they possibly can and they get the most out of their ability. As a coach, they are everything I want in a team because they represent the way we coach. They hustle, they play hard, they play smart, and they play for each other.”
“We were confident that we were going to win, we played our hearts out and that’s all I could ask from these guys,” said Loparco.
