Section 9 Class B baseball champion Chester Academy reached its first state Final Four in four years as the Hambletonians blanked Section 1 winner Putnam Valley 2-0 in a quarterfinal playoff in Saugerties.
It was a bit of a heart-stopping finish for the Hambletonians. Nick Sharp looked brilliant on the mound but loaded the bases in the seventh inning on a walk, tough-hop single and another walk. Sharp bounced a pitch and catcher James Musco had to make a short chase. Nicky Benedetto made the break for the dish but the swift throw arrived early enough for Sharp to apply the tag and finish the game.
Chester will face either Oyster Bay or Center Moriches in a 1 p.m. semifinal on Friday, June 12, at Binghamton University. The final would also be at Binghamton on June 13.
The Hambletonians struck early. Musco led off the game with a ground rules double to right field, took second on a one-out single to center by Sharp and scored on Logan Bach’s grounder to shortstop that could not be converted into a double play.
Chester went up 2-0 in the third. Sharp reached on an infield error, stole second and scored on Bach’s single to left-center.
Putnam Valley (18-8) appeared to get a run back in the fourth when Benedetto scored following a wonderful diving catch in center by Mason Diaz off the bat of Braeden McCarty but the umpires ruled the runner had not properly tagged up and the inning was over.
kmcmillan@th-record.com
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This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Baseball – Chester blanks Putnam Valley in state B quarterfinals
Reporting by Ken McMillan, Middletown Times Herald- Record / Times Herald-Record
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By Ken McMillan, Middletown Times Herald- Record | USA TODAY Network
