Bull Trader Wins in Fantastic Fashion 

On Monday July 13, Bull Trader faced Off Constantly, and the home team had really good reason for not getting much going until the bottom of the 7th. “We faced the best pitcher in the league,” Gary Casey said of Phil Chontos. But despite the 73 year old’s mastery, Casey’s team remained bullish to a point.

“Unbelievable, we fought until the end,” said the opposing pitcher, and as a result, Bull Trader came away with a walk off 7-6 win.

Of course, Casey is no slouch in the circle either. At this since the early 90’s, the pitcher induced three straight pop ups in the first and put the bats in his teammate’s hands.

Chontos responded in kind nonetheless. Three batters, three popups, and the game moved to the second.

There, Off Constantly turned it on. Eric Dustin’s hard grounder got under Luis Santos’ glove at third, Bobby Larejina lined an opposite field single to left, and Jay Reyes also went with the pitch to right.

The bases loaded with one out, a pair of errors brought the first two runs in, and that left Chontos in position to help his cause. He found an open space in short right center, and Jay Jazwinski sacrifice to right tallied the final run of the inning.

4-0, Bull Trader opened the bottom of the second in similar fashion. Vinny Corcione pulled a single to right, Rob Albano dropped a bloop to left, and Marco Fedele bounced a single past short.

The bases loaded, no out situation did not deter Chontos, though. He opened with a strike on Chris Frissora, and ahead in the count, the pitcher was off intentionally. Chontos threw high and deep, and Frissora could not lay off.

The ball fouled off for strike three, and then Chontos got some help. Nick Gianotti’s scorcher to second had Chris Vitale making a diving stop on the one hopper, he flipped to Jazwinski at short, and the throw to first ended the inning.

Onto the third, Off Constantly didn’t build on the defense. Other than an error at third that put Jake Fuss on first, the visitors went down quietly to Casey.

To the top of the order for Bull Trader, Joe Rossi reached on an infield hit. and his brother Louis sent him to third. A line single to left, Luke Fedele’s bloop behind second looked like trouble.  

So with Vitale and Jazwinski converging on the ball, the shortstop kept his focus and made the grab with Vitale’s glove up. A bit of a surprise, Joe Rossi took advantage. He took off and easily beat the ball home.

Two more outs to go, Chontos wasn’t fazed. Twice he dropped first strikes, and Gianotti knew the score from the bench. “He’s always going to get it somewhere into the corner,” said the catcher and down on foul outs went the next two batters.

The lockdown on the rubber continued through the next two half innings.  Casey got three ground ball outs, and Chontos got ahead in the count again.  With one out, the pitcher got Albano to foul out and Marco Fedele on a pop out.

Top of the fifth, this time Off Constantly rewarded their pitcher. Jazwinski, Alex Egiziano and Fuss all singled for a 5-1 lead, and with two outs, Larejina’s grounder got under Santos’ glove for run number six.

Not ready to quit, Bull Trader worked from the bottom of the order. Frissora doubled over the center fielder’s head, and Giannotti reached on an error at third.

First and second with no one out, and Casey hoped to make his case. But a ground ball to short was an easy double play, and a big inning was off the table. Still, Joe Rossi singled in Frissora, and the deficit was four.

In the sixth, Off Constantly was on pace to get the run back and more. However, with the bases loaded and two outs, Casey got Fuss to fly to left.

Chontos was up to the challenge in the bottom, though. He struck out the side, and there seemed no stopping the elder statesman.

Except maybe Frissora, he led off the seventh, and Casey knew what he had. “Chris is a clutch hitter,” said the winning pitcher, and an opposite field single to right got things started.

Gianotti did the same. “I saw the first pitch was outside. So I tried to hit to the right,” he said. “It worked out perfectly.”

Then Casey came up in the ten spot with his previous at bat on his mind. “I wanted to go to the right side, so I wouldn’t hit into a double play,” he assured.

The first baseman fielded the grounder to his right and hit Gianotti. Everyone safe, Joe Rossi’s single to left brought in two.

6-4, and Chontos momentarily settled Bull Trader with a pair of fly ball outs. But Corcione’s single to right made it 6-5 and put the winning run on second.

In stepped Santos and his line drive to center had Egiziano racing in to end the game. Not so fast, the ball went off his glove, and the game was tied. Left to Albano, a bloop behind first looked pretty good for Off Constantly. Instead, the ball fell, and Casey gladly summed up the turn of events. “Fantastic,” he concluded.

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