Pitching was again the story when CPBA and CGI squared off at Ridgefield High School Sunday morning, as two of the league’s best pitchers dueled on the hill. It was another outstanding start for Max Oliver, as he gave up three hits and four walks over four shutout innings. Oliver has been exceptional this season, as another shutout lowered his ERA to 1.06 which puts him in third place amongst pitchers. In spite of the loss, Nick Durso produced another solid outing, as he threw 4.2 IP and gave up five hits and only one earned run in the loss. Durso’s ERA moved to 1.66 following the start, leaving him ranked fifth in the league for ERA, only two spots behind Oliver.

Brendan Hughes and Ryan Kohan were excellent for CPBA in relief, combining to throw three shutout innings in which they kept hitters off-balance, only allowing two hits and a walk. It was an overall terrific outing from these three CPBA pitchers, and although it took a while, the bats would come alive to get CPBA the victory.

CPBA would get the scoring started in the third, after a CGI error led to an extra opportunity at the dish with two runners for Brendan Bussiere and he delivered with an RBI single to give CPBA a 1-0 lead. CJ Arena’s great baserunning also generated a run, as he would get around the bases on an error and a couple of passed balls to extend CPBA’s lead to two.

CPBA tacked on three more runs in the fifth to put the game out of reach for CGI. An RBI double from Jon Primerano kicked off the inning before Jake Leonard launched a homerun over the left field fence to extend the lead to four. Spencer Berson then capitalized on an error by the catcher to score from third to make it a 5-0 game.

CGI were unable to get any offense going and were only able to muster five hits. However, Tyler Ruban continued his great season with another 2-4 outing, raising his batting average to .443 leaving him fifth place in the race for the batting title.

These two teams would go on to split the doubleheader, as another great start from ace Sam Bass led to a comfortable 10-3 win for CGI in game 2. Looking forward to Tuesday, CPBA will look to bounce back from their game 2 loss when they face Langan Baseball at Breslin Field. After winning three of their past four games, CGI will look to continue their good run when they match up against the Garden State Junebugs also Tuesday at Torpey Field.