captures state championship

BY LAUREN READ Observer correspondent

Talk about peaking at the right moment.

The CVU baseball team put together a near-perfect game at the perfect moment to capture the Division I state championship on Saturday, beating Mount Anthony 6-0 at Centennial Field in Burlington.

First the team’s offense went to work, scoring six runs in the first two innings to grab control

The Redhawks got things going in the first inning, hitting back-to-back-to-back singles to score two runs and jump out to a quick lead. Robbie Fragola, Travis Stroh and Zach Santos all had hits to get CVU on the board.

Stroh then helped the Redhawks take full control in the second, hitting a three-run home run over the left field wall to extend the score to 6-0.

“You want to be in control when you’re playing baseball and that’s when we’re at our best,” Elderton said. “That second inning really showed kind of who we are as a team — there’s nobody on and two outs and we put up four runs.’

“The two-out rallies,” he continued, “we did that a lot this year and it just shows how much each kid competes.”

Rickert then took over on the mound, making a six-run lead feel insurmountable. The junior pitcher had a no-hitter through five innings and allowed just one hit in the complete game performance.

“We know Steven is going to battle and he is such a competitor,” Elderton said. “That focus he has on the mound, it really shows the rest of the team. Our defense on Saturday was making all the plays for him. He didn’t strike out many guys but the defense had his back.” of the early momentum. Then the Redhawks turned the ball over to pitcher Stephen Rickert, who turned the six-run lead into a stranglehold with a complete game, one-hit performance.

Stroh was 2-for-3 with four RBIs for the Redhawks. Robbie Fragola added a hit and two runs. Zach Santos, Calvin Steele, Kyle Tivnan and Lewis Kerest all had hits for CVU.

“Our game plan going in and when we were most successful all year was when we got out in front early,” said CVU coach Nicky Elderton. “Our hitting came together the last handful of games. We finally put a complete game together where we got great pitching, great hitting, the base-running was awesome and our fielding was great as well.”

It is CVU’s third title in four years and the first under Elderton.

“At the end of the day, we knew what we had to do and we executed the game plan,” Elderton said. “We put a full game together and it was pretty amazing to watch them play.”