St. Marys Insurance used an eight run first inning to carry them to an 11-5 win over the Allegheny Coatings Goats Monday night to win the St. Marys Mens Softball League Championship in front of a packed crowd at the Robin Road Extension Softball Complex.
St. Marys Insurance won the best of five series 3-1 after dropping the first game 14-3. This is the first title for SMI, who had previously made the finals in 2009, falling to Gunners that year.
After the Goats failed to score in the top of the first inning, SMI went work.
Rudy Gleixner led off the game with a solo homerun. Lucas Wendel drew a walk and then SMI rattled off five hits in a row and six hits in the next seven batters. In all, the Insurancemen sent thirteen batter to the plate in the inning, scoring eight runs to take a commanding 8-0 lead after one inning of play that Allegheny Coatings could never overcome.
The Goats could only muster a run in the second on a Justin Quiggle homerun, one in the fourth, two in the fifth thanks to a Hank Cappiello triple and a single run in the seventh to account for their five runs.
SMI, leading 9-4 in the bottom of the sixth, put the game away when Jake Cortina hit his second homerun of the night, a two run shot, to push the lead to 11-4 heading to the final inning.
Leading SMI, who finished the season with an 18-13 record, was Cortina, who went 3 for 4 with the two homeruns. Gleixner, Ben Cortina, Kurt Eckert and Nathan Liggett all added a pair of hits each for the winners. Gleixner’s homerun was the only other extra base hit for SMI.
The Goats, who competed the season at 19-12, was led by 2 for 3 nights by Derek Meyer, Dillon Kline, Hank Cappiello and Vince Jacob. Meyer doubled, Cappiello tripled and Justin Quiggle homered in the losing effort. Jacob led the team with a pair of RBI’s.