Down by way of the
'K'
Lincoln hurler Chris
Constantino strikes out 15 in victory over Davenport
By
Mark Rogoff
Just call him Chris Constantino
Sabathia. C.C. Sabathia.
The Lincoln, Rhode
Island right-hander looked just as good, if not better than the
Cleveland Indians southpaw. Constantino struck out the first nine
batters he faced in his first outing at the 58th World Series,
equaling Sabathia's strikeout total from his last two starts
combined.
Constantino fanned 15
overall, allowing only five batters to put the ball in play as
Lincoln (1-0) prevailed 3-2 over Davenport (0-2) in front of 9,700
at Volunteer Stadium Saturday.
Nathan Duquette's RBI
single in the top half of the sixth proved to be the game-winner.
"Chris was
outstanding," said Lincoln manager Randy Hien. "I feel like he is
one of the best, if not the best pitcher in the country. The word
is out - we feed him nails for breakfast. That kid is tough."
The five-foot-10,
183-pounder had to work out of trouble in the sixth, striking out
Jacob Maxwell with the tying run on the third and the winning run
on second. Earlier in the inning, he had collided with Davenport
shortstop Brody Grothus at the plate as Grothus scored on a wild
pitch. Constantino spent a few minutes with his coaches and the
training staff before getting back on the hill to close out the
game.
"I had everything
working," he said. "The whole game I had my fastball."
Grothus led off the
fourth with an infield hit to break Constantino's string of nine
straight punch-outs to start the game. Grothus also stroked a
one-out single to left to start Davenport's sixth-inning rally.
"(The
sixth inning) felt like three innings," Hien said. "You have to
give a lot of credit to the other team. There was no quit in
them."
Added Duquette, who
was playing first base: "I was pretty nervous. But we had Chris on
the mound."
Lincoln scored a pair
of runs in the first to stake an early 2-0 lead. Jeremy Rhault
scored on Zach Trenteseaux' fielder's choice before Trenteseaux
himself came around to score on Brendan Sullivan's single up the
middle.
Davenport's Justin
Black cut the lead in half when he popped a two-out homer to
right-centerfield. That marked the first run Constantino had given
up since the opener of regional play August 6 vs. Worcester, MA.
The burly righty gave a "high five" to Black as he rounded third
and headed for home.
"You got to tip your
hat to the kid," Constantino said.
Davenport did receive
a fine effort from starting pitcher Jacob Gibson, who struck out
nine and gave up three runs on eight hits in the complete-game
loss.
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for box scores
