Guilford off to the SCC Championship After Win vs. Xavier

May 23, 2023

The Guilford Grizzlies defeated the Xavier Falcons 6-2 in their SCC Semifinal Game on Tuesday afternoon at GHS, and will now play Fairfield Prep in the SCC Championship Game on Thu., 5/25, at West Haven High School's Whitey Piurek Field - first pitch is 5:30 pm.

Andrew Shosho earned his team-leading 6th win of the year by pitching 6-1/3 innings, striking out 4 Falcons, while giving up just a single earned run to the GametimeCT's #7 ranked team in the state. Shosho demonstrated his resilience in the top of the 1st when he walked a pair of Falcons with 1 out, but got the next 2 batters to end the early rally. Xavier's only run through the first 6 innings came on a sac fly in the top of the 4th, after a Guilford error prolonged the inning. Otherwise, the "Big Sho" scattered 5 Falcon hits in a commanding outing that earned his team a bus ride to West Haven on Thursday.

Xavier starter, Owen Sotero, held Guilford scoreless through the first 3 innings, but the Grizzlies would score 5 times in the bottom of the 4th to give Shosho a cushion to work with. Bryce Meder lead off with a single to right and was followed by Carter Williams, who singled over the 3rd base bag, putting 2 runners on base to start the inning. Grizzlies' Head Coach, Nick Merullo, then had Colin Pompano lay down a sacrifice bunt, but an errant throw by Sotero attempting to get Meder at 3rd, loaded the bases for Guilford with no outs.

Up next was Alex Vincent, who drew a RBI walk and the game was tied at 1. Cole Morgan-Berry followed Vincent with an RBI ground out that gave the Grizzlies a 2-1 lead, and Sam Ametrano drew a walk to re-load the bases. Sotero would then commit a balk that forced in another run to make it 3-1, Guilford, while moving Vincent & Ametrano into scoring position. A few batters later, Lucas Deshefy, the SCC Player of The Year, delivered a 2-RBI single up the middle, scoring both baserunners, and the Grizzlies took a 5-1 lead into the 5th.

In the bottom of the 5th, Morgan-Berry delivered an RBI single to give the Grizzlies a 6-1 lead. Defensively, some great plays were made in the outfield by Lucas & Sam Ametrano, who both had diving catches to rob Xavier hits, and Morgan-Berry also laid out for a grounder playing 2nd base, that ended the top of the 6th. Shosho gave way to Deshefy in the top of the 7th, who came on to get the final 2 outs of the game via strikeouts.

Lucas Deshefy went 3 for 4 in the game with a double & 2 RBI, while Cole Morgan-Berry had a hit and 2 RBI as well. Carter Williams also had 2 hits for the Grizzlies.

The Semifinal win over Xavier pushes Guilford's win streak to 13 games and a 19-3 record on the year. On Thursday, they will have a chance to win their first SCC Championship since 2007, when they take on Fairfield Prep at 5:30 pm. in West Haven.