Connecticut HS Spotlight Game: SCC Semifinals - Amith vs Daniel Hand

WEST HAVEN, Conn. - Amity got the best of a back-and-forth affair Wednesday, taking care of Daniel Hand, 7-6, despite a feverish three-run rally by Daniel Hand in the seventh, to advance to the SCC Championship Game.

“All you can do is hope you’re grooving at the right time,” Amity head coach Sal Coppola said. “We still have a little work to do -- we’re in need of a couple of good practices.”

The Spartans, now 16-6, will play top-seeded Cheshire on Saturday afternoon in the championship. The Spartans and Rams split the season series at one win apiece but ever since Amity’s win at the top of the season Cheshire has rattled off 21 in a row.

But for Amity to get the right to play them for the third time this spring they had to take care of business against the Tigers.

Starter John Lumpinski may not have had his best stuff Wednesday, but he did well enough by not giving Hand any big innings, albeit at the end, and striking out seven. The Spartans, with just five hits all afternoon, mustered five runs off Hand starter Julian Banerji in the fourth. With two outs, Jacob Crow had an RBI single, Tanner Santos drew a bases-loaded walk and Cole Kuchachik delivered a huge three-run triple.

“To be able to do what we did with two outs is huge,” Coppola said. “We had good at-bats and to get our leadoff hitter, that’s hitting close to .400, up with [the] bases loaded was big.”

Amity junior Will Rotko got bounced around a little bit in that seventh-inning frame when Hand got runs off Anthony DePino and Kevin Girardi’s RBI flyouts, and Will Kleinhenz’s RBI double, but the Amity offense ultimately ended up being enough to seal the one-run victory.