Incredible Finish Puts Baseball Team in Quarterfinals

Leo Veleas has been around baseball his whole life. He was a great player growing up, played in college and professionally and has coached the Redcoats for more than 20 years now.

Just when you have seen it all...guess again. 

Berlin needed to score a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the game to extra innings and then had to score three more in the bottom of the eighth to grab victory from the jaws of defeat, 9-8 in eight innings over Masuk of Monroe.

With the win, Berlin will next play Foran of Milford in the Class L quarterfinals on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Nolan Field in Ansonia. 

"It was nuts," Veleas said. "Wacky the way things turned out. It certainly did not look like we were going to win at a lot of points during those last few innings. But we went on to win. It's nice when you win and I'm really proud because those kids hung tough."

Berlin was in good shape until the sixth inning. The Redcoats took an early 4-0 lead and led 5-0 going to the top of the sixth inning.

Berlin ace Austin Barnes was cruising, though he did have some fielding help. In the fourth inning, Masuk put runners at first and second with no outs. Their batter hit a rocket to centerfield but Berlin's Will Matuszak snared it and doubled off the runner at second.

"That ball was a bullet," Veleas said. "If he doesn't catch that, it's at least a double or triple and maybe a different game but we end up with a double play. Those guys swung the bat pretty good but it is pitching and defense. They also made five errors and walked a bunch of guys."

Berlin led 5-0 when Masuk scored two runs in the top of the sixth on three doubles.

"Even when it's 5-2 I think we're ok because Barnesie is cruising," Veleas said. "You want to ride your horse as long as you can because you hope he can pull one out of the fire for you. But Austin was shot so we brought Timmy Norton in and he did a nice job."

Masuk unleashed its potent offense in the top of the seventh, scoring four times to take a 6-5 lead. 

Berlin then came back and tied it on an RBI single by Mike Cowperthwaite, which forced extra innings.

Masuk put two more runs on the board in the top of the eighth inning to take an 8-6 lead but Berlin showed no quit.

Norton led off with a single. After a pop out, Jamie Brancato and Barnes chipped in with base hits and Matuszak a walk. Brendan Germano hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game and then Cowperthwaite was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Bobby Mozzicato went ahead 3-0 in the count but ended up at 3-2. He then fouled off several pitches before taking ball four high and knocking in the game-winner with a base on balls.

"The ball was up so I don't think there was any questioning it was a ball," Veleas added.

Veleas gets his scouting report from coach Nick Pepe who saw Foran beat Rockville 8-0. 

"I usually get the report from Nicky and we talked briefly but to tell you the truth I didn't care," Veleas said. "We'll talk more tomorrow but after this game I didn't want to think about the next one."