Sagemont Cruises To 8-3 Win Over Zion Lutheran

Click here to view the gallery of this game.

Tony Colon had never even set foot on a pitcher’s mound.

But as he walked through the parking lot with Sagemont coach Tommy Martinez before Wednesday night’s game against Zion Lutheran, Colon told his coach he was ready to pitch if needed.

With his team leading 4-2 after two innings, Colon got the call, and the freshman responded by tossing four innings of one-run ball to help Sagemont defeat Zion 8-3 in a Group 4 game of the HSBN/Perfect Recruits Fall Classic.

“I like to consider myself a team player, so whatever the team needs, I’ll do it,” said Colon, who also went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run. “Whether they need me to catch, pitch, play outfield, be a first-base coach, whatever, I’ll do anything it takes to help the team out and get us a win.”

Colon was cruising with a five-run lead in the bottom of the fifth when he got his first real taste of adversity. Zion managed to get runners on second and third with no outs following a Nick Vazquez single and a Saul Valez walk.

“I just told myself ‘don’t do anything crazy, don’t do anything out of your limits,’” Colon said. “We may have been up five runs, but to me it felt like 0-0. I didn’t want to give up anything at all.”

After inducing two lazy pop-outs, Colon struck out Ivan Robledo with a 1-2 change-up, pumped his fist and jogged off the field screaming.

“Once I got that second out, I knew this was mine,” Colon said. “I told myself ‘I got this, let’s go.’ Then I struck out that last guy and I felt like Jose Valverde, and I just started screaming.”

Colon’s second and final strikeout came in the sixth inning to close the game.

“He threw very well. He kept guys off balance, threw his fastball inside and outside, and he had the change-up going,” Martinez said. “It was all confidence. He believed he could do it and he did.”

For Zion, the game really boiled down to two plays.

In the top of the second, Sagemont tied the game at 1 when James McDonald scored on a two-out fielder’s choice. The next batter, David Vazquez, reached on a fielding error, keeping the inning alive and opening the floodgates for a four-run frame.

“That’s what’s been happening to us. We have that one inning where it just destroys the rest of the game for us,” Zion coach Jose Piedra said. “This team is very young and they just need to mature mentally.”

Trailing 4-2 in the fourth inning, Zion committed another costly error to blow the game wide open.

Chris Iacono worked an 0-2 count, fouled off two pitches and drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Deerfield pitcher Saul Valez managed to get the next batter to hit a high fly ball to shallow right, but a fielding error paved the way for another four-run inning.

Iacono finished 1-for-2 with two walks, two runs and a stolen base in the win.

The bright spot for Zion came in the play of pitcher Marco Pinto, who allowed just one earned run in his two innings of work. The freshman left-hander struggled with some inconsistency, but he froze several Sagemont batters with his excellent 12-to-6 curveball.

“Marco is going to be special one day,” Piedra said. “He has three-plus pitches. He can spot his fastball, he has an outstanding change-up and his curveball is ridiculous when he’s on. By the time he’s a junior or senior, he’ll be one of the top guys in the county. I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes one of the top guys in the state.

“Again, it all comes down to maturity. He’s a freshman and he needs to learn how to control his emotions, especially when things aren’t going his way. He needs to learn to harness that and turn it into a positive manner.”

Zak Thompson went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and a stolen base for Zion, while Manny Rojas went 1-for-3 with two stolen bases and a run.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!