Deposit-Hancock baseball rides Fortunato's 2-hit gem into Class D state championship game

A tense, one-run game headed to the fifth inning turned lopsided in a hurry Friday afternoon as Deposit-Hancock moved within one victory of an unbeaten baseball season with a 15-0 victory over Crown Point.

Deposit-Hancock scored six runs in the fifth and eight in the seventh, improving to 22-0 with a victory in a New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D semifinal at SUNY Broome Community College.

The added runs were largely window dressing as it turned out thanks to a shutout from Eagles right-hander Caden Fortunato. He struck out 14 in a two-hitter.

"Going into the game we were being aggressive," Deposit-Hancock coach Ryan Smith said. "Caden went out there, he pounded the strike zone. Guys were aggressive at the plate and I couldn’t be happier for them."

Player of the Game

Fortunato showcased his ace stuff, working quickly and efficiently to shut down the Panthers. Reese Pertak had a one-out single down the left-field line in the opening inning and Evan Carey doubled into the left-field corner with one out in the fourth.

Each time, Fortunato responded by retiring the next two batters, with three of the four going down with strikeouts.

"He wants the ball in his hands," Smith said. "At that moment he's ready to pitch in big games."

In an attempt to deal with Fortunato's rapid pace, some Crown Point batters called timeout. On one occasion while pitching from the stretch, Fortunato looked down and delivered a pitch before a Crown Point batter was in hitting position.

"I really try to control the pace of the game," said Fortunato, who threw 86 pitches. "I feel like if you control the pace of the game, you're in the driver's seat. That just helps us get the job done."

Play of the Game

The Eagles' Chris Gross led off the game with a single to left, stole second and scored on a wild pitch. That was the lone run until he came to the plate with one out in the fifth and hit a ball over the center fielder's head. Gross slid into third, anticipating a throw to the base. When he got up, he saw the ball still in the cutoff player's glove in shallow left field and booked home for an inside-the-park home run.

Five more runs followed in the frame against right-hander Noah Spaulding, who pitched a no-hitter in Crown Point's 2-0 win over Tupper Lake in the regional final. Spaulding was charged with 12 runs Friday after leaving with one out in the seventh.

Offensive leaders

Deposit-Hancock collected 13 hits and contributions came from up and down the lineup, along with the reserves.

Anton Leonard had three hits, including an RBI double and an RBI single. Blake Fortunato singled twice to match the two hits from Gross, who reached a third time on a hit by pitch. Gross popped up on his final at-bat and limped to the dugout after falling to the ground on the way to first. He didn't return to the game.

In the seventh inning, Thomas Reis, Leonard, Logan Barnes and Brennan Karcher stroked run-scoring doubles over a span of five at-bats, with the latter two players coming off the bench to do so.

Cleanup hitter Wyatt Jacobs was hit by pitch in all four of his plate appearances. As a team, Eagles batters were hit six times by pitches.

"All 19 guys got to play today and as a coach that gets me excited," Smith said. "Everyone was on board."

Quotable

Caden Fortunato was asked about Deposit-Hancock getting the offense rolling.

"We try to take everything one pitch at a time," he said. "We have this saying: water the bamboo. There’s bamboo that you water and you water and you water and it doesn’t grow. At some point it sprouts up, six or seven feet tall. So we watered the bamboo all day until it paid off for us in the end."

Up next

The Eagles will take on Section 9 champion Chapel Field (13-1) in the title game at 4 p.m. Saturday at Binghamton University. Chapel Field was an 8-1 winner over Section 6's Clymer/Sherman/Panama in Friday's second semifinal.

"We’re going to the state championship tomorrow," Caden Fortunato said. "We knew that was our goal from the beginning of the year and we came here today and executed and got the job done. ... This team's a bunch of dogs and a bunch of hard workers. We're excited and we've earned it for sure."

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Deposit-Hancock rolled past Crown Point in NYSPHSAA baseball semifinal