MONMOUTH — Starting pitcher Kyle Palleschi was denied the win on the mound, but he did give Monmouth Academy the victory with one mighty swing of his bat.
The score was tied in the bottom of the eighth inning when Palleschi ripped a walk-off RBI single to bring home Owen Harding for the game-winning run to deliver the Mustangs a 2-1 victory over Oak Hill in a clash of Class C South contenders from the Mountain Valley Conference on Friday.
“It was a good win,” Palleschi said. “Oak Hill fought hard, and at the end they came up a little short. We’ve got a great group of guys and we never give up. We always fight to the end.”
Palleschi said his walk-off hit was a first for him.
“I mean that was a big one,” he said. “First time for everything.”
“He’s had good season from the plate all year,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said of his son.
Kyle Palleschi and Oak Hill pitcher Trent Drouin dueled for nearly seven innings. Palleschi was then relieved by Isaac Oliveira with two outs in the top seventh inning.
“He hit his pitch limit,” Kyle Palleschi said. “We had Isaac, and Isaac was warmed up and he was ready to go. That’s how we played most of the year, anyway. He usually comes in at the end.”
Oliveira said it was fun watching the two pitchers go head-to-head.
“Trenton Drouin is good,” Eric said. “They’ve competed against each other since they were 9 years old. They are good friends. That makes it even more interesting.”
Oliveira relieved Palleschi with two outs in the top of the seventh. Palleschi, who went 3 for 4 at the plate, struck out nine batters and gave up seven hits. Oliveira finished out the top of the eighth inning and got the win.
“I felt pretty good great going into it knowing I had a guy where I had to pitch from the stretch,” Oliveira said. “I had to go into it thinking strikes, strikes, and pound the zone and throw inside. I have to listen to what coach says, and doing what he says, and trusting the process gets the win.”
Drouin pitched all eight innings for the Raiders, striking out six and giving up eight hits.
With the score locked in at 1-1 in after seven innings, the game went to an extra frame.
The Raiders (12-3) couldn’t bring in a run in the top of the eighth, with Oliveira striking out a batter and the Mustangs (13-1) defense backing him by collecting the other two outs in the outfield.
Harding said that after he reached base with a hit in the eighth, he became more hopeful that the Raiders were going to pull out a win.
“I had a good feeling that my guys in the order were going to put the ball in play, we were going to do good,” he said. “I would say it was a dogfight. Oak Hill did a heckuva job. Yeah, it was a gutsy win, but we needed that one.”
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, the Mustangs made their move by loading the bases. Harding singled, Sam Calder reached on an error and Hunter Frost was intentionally walked. Kyle Palleschi came to bat and hammered out a hard-hit single to score Harding with the game-winning run.
“We lost one to them 3-0 earlier in the year,” Eric Palleschi said. “We didn’t have a good feeling about that one. So it’s good to keep rolling as you are heading into he playoffs with momentum.”
Oak Hill scored its run in the top of the third inning. Ethan Vattaso got on due to an error and scored on Drouin’s RBI double. Along with his stellar pitching, Drouin had four hits for the Raiders.
“It was a great game the entire time,” Oak Hill coach Chad Stowell said. “We had some chances. Kyle Palleschi was outstanding. He shut us down, and Trent matching it pitch for pitch. He went the distance and battled. They were able to scrape one across. We had our chances and they were a little bit better.”
The Mustangs tied the game in the bottom of the third inning. Kyle Palleschi walked, stole second base and moved to third after Matt Marquis grounded out to the pitcher. Palleschi ended up scoring on Luke Harmon’s RBI single.
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