BEDFORD, N.Y. - It certainly didn’t hurt when Jackson Carroll’s Fox Lane teammates put up a two-spot in the bottom half of the first inning, providing some early breathing room before the Fox ace went to work, outdualing Mahopac ace Nick Masciarelli in the host Foxes’ 7-2 Class AA semifinal triumph last Tuesday.
“Those first couple of runs in the first inning really helped me a lot,” said Carroll, a sophomore, who has pitched to the tune of a 1.85 ERA and a 6-0 record.
He’s now whiffed 41 batters through 45.1 innings.
“Coming into the game, we heard that this kid (Masciarelli) was untouchable, so those two runs gave us all a really big boost. I had control of all my pitches today. I knew my defense had my back, so I just trusted them and threw strikes. I’ve always had pressure in big games before, so like the previous championship games I’ve pitched, I just blocked out the pressure. Trust myself and do my thing.”
‘His thing’ mattered most when the fourth-seeded Wolf Pac, trailing 3-2, tried to mount a late game-tying rally when SS Vince Cataldo stroked a one-out triple to right-center, but Carroll got the heart of the Mahopac order looking on strikes to end the threat, just a portion of a shimmery eight-K, two-hit effort.
The second-seeded, state-ranked (No. 10) Foxes (18-5) followed with four runs in the fifth and eventually forced a reliever for Masciarelli, among the section’s top hurlers going in. The win cleared a path for Fox Lane to Purchase College for the Section 1 championship game on Saturday, May 31, when the Foxes will face state-ranked (No. 16) Mahopac, yet again, following the Wolf Pac’s 7-1 win over top-seeded, state-ranked (No. 18) Yorktown in the loser’s bracket of the modified sectional semis. Fox Lane, among the top programs in Section 1 history, will be seeking its fifth Section 1 title and first since 2006 while Mahopac, which advanced to the finals for the first time since 2005, hopes to win its first sectional title since 1996.
The coronation of Carroll as one of Section 1’s top hurlers, despite his youth, was fait accompli.
“He’s legit, legit, I mean he’s still growing into his own man strength, and he's just a sophomore,” legendary Fox Lane coach Matt Hillis said of Carroll, who allowed just one earned run. “When you’re a strike thrower, you’re going to be able to compete in Section 1 baseball. That’s why Mahopac’s kid is so good, and that’s why Jackson has been so good. He just pounded the strike zone today.”
One through nine did its part for Fox Lane, but the two early runs set the tone and allowed the Foxes to settle in.
“We had some great at-bats today,” Fox Lane senior C Logan Mammola said. “And that allowed Jackson to be the great pitcher that he is. He had a great day on the mound and the boys really got the bats going. We are looking to keep it going and win in one game, which we should.”
Fox OF Andrew Diaz (2 hits, run) smoked a double to deep left field and scored. CF Will Rudolph drove home the first of his two RBI in the inning. Cooper Furst stole two bases, scored two runs and drove in another off a safety squeeze. Logan Provost added a run and a rib-eye. Sean Singleton had a run-scoring single. Danny Spolansky knocked in the game’s final run.
The Foxes had prepared accordingly and the damage was evident.
“One hundred percent, one hundred percent,” Hillis said. “The last two days were spent on preparation for this kid (Masciarelli). We had multiple machines going for how we were going to approach him, and we talked about the fact that we’re going to have to punch pretty early to let him know that we’re a pretty good team. The bottom half of the order came through, too. With them, we were focused on hit-and-run and small ball, and we executed three hit-and-runs today and a safety squeeze successfully. The entire lineup stepped up and did their jobs.”
Mahopac, which moved to the finals via the loser’s bracket, would need to defeat the Foxes twice to win it all. Fox Lane was just one win away.
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