Ludlowe Baseball Clinches FCIAC Playoff Spot

With the postseason just around the corner, the Ludlowe High School baseball team is experiencing a bit of a role reversal.

Zach Garoffolo tossed a five-hitter and Tom Nagy blasted a long home run Monday, as the Falcons defeated St. Joseph, 3-1,  at Kiwanis Field and later clinched an FCIAC playoff.

 To wrap up a playoff spot on Monday, Ludlowe (13-5, 11-5)  needed a win and losses by McMahon and Trinity Catholic. Greenwich beat Trinity Catholic, 9-8,  and Norwalk blanked McMahon, 4-0.

The Falcons, who host McMahon on Wednesday and visit Bridgeport Central on Thursday to close the regular season, also are eyeing a possible first-round bye in the state tournament.

Entering the season, Ludlowe's strength was its offense, and the Falcons roared to a 9-0 start behind some heavy lumber, but now the Falcons are suddenly getting dominant starting pitching.

Garoffolo's effort came on the heels of Friday's two-hit masterpiece by Steve Guasco, who blanked Warde, 6-0, at Harbor Yard. And he worked quickly - Monday's contest lasted only 1 four, 49 minutes.

"Our pitchers need to step up and we've been working real hard on our pitching," said Garoffolo (4-2), who allowed only two runners over the final 3 2/3 innings. "We did well today. We played defense well today (no hitters) and we had some timely hitting, which was good."

 Nagy's sixth homer of the season, a shot just to the left of the 400-foot sign in center field off St. Joseph starter Dan Julian, got the Falcons on the board in the second.

Billy Malone, who had two hits, delivered a two-run double to left field in the third to give Ludlowe a 3-0 lead.

"The past two outings have been outstanding," Ludlowe coach Keith O'Rourke said. "You can't ask for anything more from the kids who have gone, both Guasco and today Garoffolo, than what they were able to give us on the mound."

The Falcons actually extending their scoreless innings streak to 14 before the Cadets scored their only run on Tyler Matakevich's double and Chris McCormick's single up the middle.

"(Guasco) pitched a great game and I just wanted to come close to what he did," Garoffolo said. "It got us all pumped up to play our next game."

Garoffolo, who issued three walks, only struck out two, but he threw a lot of first-pitch strikes and didn't face many deep counts.

"All you ask of your pitching staff is that they throw strikes," O'Rourke said. "When you throw strikes, good things happen. When you get ahead in the count, good things happen, and our pitchers are getting ahead in the count now, which is putting a little bit of pressure on the other team.

They're not getting comfortable swings. When you're constantly 2-0 or 3-1, it allows the other team to get happy at the plate. Garoffolo didn't allow them to do that today and neither did Guasco at Harbor Yard."

 The Falcons did have some misadventures on the bases, as two runners were picked off first, one by catcher Joe Burns and the other by Julian, who gave up seven hits over five innings.

 "He was able to fake us out a couple times, but we're gonna work on that and hopefully we'll get better at that,"Garoffolo said.

 However, Ludlowe catcher Rob Ferrara, who is bound for Marist, gunned down two St. Joseph runners trying to steal second, which certainly was key in a 3-1 game.

 After McCormick's hit in the fourth, the other Cadets to reach were Alex Carboni with one out in the fifth and Brendan Nugent with two outs in the seventh. They both walked.

Nagy and Ferrara also had two hits apiece for the Falcons, who appear to have turned things around. They have won three in a row following a four-game slide.