Maloney Baseball's 16-inning win 'One For The Ages

This article was written by Rick Volk and originally appeared in Berlin Patch

It took over four hours. It took 16 innings. It took a 25-hit attack. In the end, Maloney High did more than enough to earn a 14-8 victory over Berlin at Sage Park on Monday night. 

Facing defeat, Maloney put on a two-run rally in the seventh against the Berlin bullpen to knot the score at 8-8. 

Dan Berger’s base hit and his subsequent steal of third base, combined with a Berlin error and RBI groundouts by Kyle Hartenstein and John Walter sent the game into extra innings. 

Berger played a major role in sending the game far into the night by providing 9.2 innings of scoreless relief pitching. Relieving starter Mike Bonaiuto in fifth, the senior right-hander allowed only three hits, at one point retiring 13 consecutive Redcoat batters. 

Berlin’s Mike Veronesi, working in relief of Connor Bennett, hurled nine strong innings, stopping the strong-hitting Maloney attack in its tracks until the 16th inning, when he plunked Andrew Hendrickson with a pitch to start a six-run outburst. 

Dallas DeFrancesco (3-0) gained the pitching victory for the Spartans with two innings of scoreless relief, while banging out six hits in eight at-bats to go with three RBIs. Kyle Hartenstein added four RBIs for the victors. 

The Redcoats were out hit by Maloney 25-14 and were held scoreless over the last eleven innings of the game. 

Early in the evening, Berlin put up a 5-1 lead by taking advantage of walks and timely hits by Mitch Williams and Greg Konowski, before the Meriden attack closed the Berlin lead to one run in third inning. Maloney centerfielder John Walter’s spectacular running catch of a Dante Vasi shot leading off the bottom of the 9th was the game’s top defensive play. 

On Twitter, Berger called the game “One for the ages,” and saluted Veronesi’s valiant pitching. 

The teams meet again in Meriden on May 17th. The Spartans, now 7-3, face E.O. Smith Wednesday and Platt on Friday, while Berlin (6-4) travels to Enfield for a Wednesday game against Fermi, before a road game at Plainville on Friday night. 

MALONEY: 

• Hector Gonzalez ss 8-1-2
  
• Lucas Olson rf 8-2-2
  
• Dallas DeFrancesco 3b-p 8-1-6
  
• Mike Bonaiuto p-lb-lf 9-2-3
  
• Mike Gulino c 9-1-2
  
• Logan Hayes pr 0-0-0
  
• Dan Berger lb-p-3b 7-2-2
  
• Andrew Hendrickson lf 8-2-3
  
• Kyle Hartenstein 2b 8-1-2
  
• John Walter cf 8-1-3 
  
• 2B: Olson, DeFrancesco, 
  
• 3B: Hartenstein
  
• RBI: Hartenstein 4, DeFrancesco 3, Walter 2, Olson, Hendrickson, Gulino, Bonaiuto
  
• BB: Berger 2, DeFrancesco
  
• HP: Gonzalez, Hendrickson, Olson
  
• SB: Berger, Hendrickson Bonaiuto 4.1 IP, 10H, 8R, 6ER, 5BB, 4K
  
• Berger 9.2 IP, 3H, 2BB, 8K
  
• DeFrancesco(W, 3-0) 2IP, 1H, 2BB, 1K 
  

• Daren Grabowski cf 6-1-2
  
• Greg Konowski lf 6-2-2
  
• Mitch Williams 3b 6-1-2
  
• Kyle Naples ss 5-0-0
  
• Dante Vasi lb 7-0-1
  
• Jordan Zima c 8-0-0
  
• Dave Condon rf 7-2-2
  
• Jeff Sylvester eh 7-1-2
  
• Alec Norton 2b 8-1-3 
  
• 2B: Norton, Sylvester
  
• RBI: Konowski 2, Williams 2, Vasi, Condon, Sylvester, Norton
  
• BB: Naples 3, Williams 2, Grabowski, Konowski, Vasi, Sylvester
  
• HP: Grabowski
  
• SB: Grabowski
  
• SF: Condon, Konowski Connor Bennett 5.2IP, 13H, 6R, 6ER, 1BB, 2K
  
• Jared Gallagher .2IP, 1H, 2R, 0ER
  
• Mike Veronesi(L 1-2) 9IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 5K
  
• Dan Wrona .2IP, 5H, 5R, 5ER 1BB