Colby Costanzo Powers Piper Past Flanagan

Colby Costanzo threw a gem for six innings before tiring in the seventh as Piper held on for a 9-7 win over Flanagan on Wednesday night.

Flanagan rallied from a 9-2 deficit in the bottom of the seventh as the Falcons used a combination of hits, walks and a hit batter. After the first two batter reached base, the Bengals opted for Kharlin Sued to nail down the victory. Three hits, a pair of walks and one hit batter later, and the seemingly insurmountable 9-2 lead was gone.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Piper called on Mike Morejen to prevent the Bengals from blowing it. Up to bat with the game on the line, Flanagan’s Daniel Oliveri was brushed by an inside pitch but was called out on strikes to end the game as the home-plate umpire tried to explain to the Falcons that the batter had stepped into the pitch and was in the strike zone when the ball nicked his jersey.

Flanagan opened the scoring in the first as Rick Sanchez singled home Andres Sanchez. Jesse Crosno brought in Andre Williams to even the score at 1 in the top of the second.

Costanzo settled into a groove, yielding only one more run over the next five innings.

But Oliveri couldn’t match his counterpart’s success as the Bengals tallied six runs on six hits with the aid of five walks and a hit batter before Oscar Rodriguez came in and induced an easy come-backer to close out the sixth inning.

Although displaying a wide assortment of pitches with both good velocity and movement, Oscar Rodriguez was still roughed up for three more runs in the seventh, stretching Piper’s lead to 9-2.

Offensive standouts for Piper were Williams (2-for-2, two RBI, three runs, stolen base) and Chris Rodriguez with a base-clearing double to break a 1-1 third-inning tie.

The Falcons were led by Rick Sanchez (single, double, two RBI, run), Jose Mesa (2-for-3, two RBI, run) and Adrian Garces (two singles and an RBI).

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