RallyNorth.net

Fri, May 30, 2008 04:00 PM @ Georgetown

Team	Final
Playoff Game North Division 1 - Round 1
Winthrop	6
Georgetown	7

Conte's clutch hit give Royals dramatic win

Saturday, May, 31 By Jim Sullivan
Correspondent

GEORGETOWN | Anthony Conte called it a dream at-bat.

"It's like when you're 6 or 7-years-old playing wiffle ball with your cousins (saying), 'It's the bottom of the ninth! Bases loaded! Two out!'"

Except this is high school baseball, and it was the bottom of the seventh | but still the final inning of play.

Conte found himself at the plate with the score tied, the bases loaded and two out as his Georgetown High baseball team faced visiting Winthrop in a Division 3 North first round playoff game.

The left-handed hitter worked Vikings' pitcher Matt Moore to a full count, looked to the crowd, found his father and smiled.

Moore wound and dealt a fastball that was just, as Conte puts it, "A little too high."

Conte made contact, knocking a blooper to center field that fell in, and his Royals walked off with the 7-6 victory. It also gave his head coach, Mark Rowe, his 100th career victory.

Georgetown (14-7), who will face the winner of today's game between Swampscott and top-ranked North Reading in the quarterfinals, trailed 5-0 early on before rallying to take an eventual 6-5 lead. After Winthrop tied it up, Conte's last inning heroics saved the day.

"It's a heck of a way to get it, I'll tell ya!" exclaimed Rowe as his players swarmed each other on the field. "I'm not sure if we got to the eighth what I would have done. I give Winthrop all the credit in the world. They came here to play."

Neck deep in tournament play, where a loss means the end of the season, Rowe took his team aside before the game telling them, "Don't leave this field saying, 'I coulda had some more.'

Neither team did as Georgetown's Tim Holland took the mound against Moore. Things remained scoreless until the top of the second when Wil Milano knocked in Ricky Boudrow and Moore scored Jake Connors to give the Vikings a 2-0 lead. Two innings later Milano took Holland deep with two on, extending the Vikings' lead to 5-0.

The Royals began their rally when Joe Esposito rocked a two RBI double to center then was brought home by Jeff Rollins to make it 5-3. The bottom of the fifth saw Holland bring home Mike Ruh for run number four. Holland knocked in two more RBIs in the sixth, giving ninth-seeded Winthrop (13-8) the lead for the first time 6-5.

But the victory celebration was short-lived as Boudrow blasted a solo home run off of Holland, this time hitting the top of the Perley Elementary School four hundred feet away.

The Royals took their last ups, loaded the bases ... and the rest as they say, was history.

"I'm really proud at how they stayed in the game," said Rowe. "They'd battle and battle and battle…"

"This was my last day of high school. I didn't want it to be my last day of baseball," added Holland, who threw 110 pitches yesterday. "I've been playing with Conte and Joe (Esposito) since we were eight years old. I'm not ready to give it up yet."