By Nicholas Gallo

The DCCC Phantoms baseball team stole a win from Lehigh Community College on April 13, at their home field.

It seemed as if the Phantoms were going to add a loss to their record being down 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning, then Phantoms short stop Sean Donahue stepped up to bat. Donahue got on base after the Cougars mishandled a ground ball. Donahue proceeded to steal second, putting the team in position to get a run in with no outs.

Phantoms third basemen Jorge Rodriguez advanced Donahue to third in a ground out to first. With one out, Alec Barr hit a slicing double to jumpstart a comeback.

The next two batters for the Phantoms continued to add more runs onto the board. With two outs and a man on third, Phantom’s first basemen Matthew Long delivered the final run of the inning, tying the score at 6-6.

Entering the sixth inning, both teams picked up their defenses. With a diving play by Phantom’s outfielder, Tyler Butz, and good pitching by the Cougars, neither team was able to score in the inning.

Phantom’s left-fielder Christopher Caltabiano looked to motivate his teammates by hitting a single and being aggressive on the base paths in the bottom of the seventh.

Caltaibiano went into action by stealing second and third base. Butz would break the tie by hitting a double, making the score 7-6.

Caltaibiano continued to perform by hitting a single to bring Donahue home in the bottom of the eighth. Donahue put Caltabiano in position to bring a run in by hitting a single and stealing second base. Entering the ninth inning, the Phantoms were ahead 8-6.

Phantoms head coach Paul Motta said the seventh inning is when things started to turn around.

“When we started to run the bases better and get better pitches to hit, that is when things started to happen for us,” Motta said.

In the ninth inning, the Phantoms walked four consecutive batters to cut the lead to one. With bases loaded and two outs, the Cougars had an opportunity to take the game away from the Phantoms. Christian Burgos of the Cougars popped up an infield fly, giving the Phantoms 8-7 win.

The win gave DCCC a two game winning streak going into Saturday.

“I don’t know what kind of pitching we are going to have for Saturday as we used up most of the pitching today,” Motta said. “We are going to have to hit the ball to win. We are not going to be able to pitch way out.”

The Phantoms take on Valley Forge at DCCC’s field for a doubleheader. First game starts at 12:00p.m. on April 15.

Contact Nicholas Gallo at communitarian@mail.dccc.edu