Law rules in Class L baseball final

MIDDLETOWN — Just a few weeks ago, Law's baseball team was as low as a team could be. The Lawmen couldn't hit, they could barely field and hardly pitch.

On Saturday afternoon, they were crowned state champions.

Led by seniors Matt Ramos and Jim Ineson, Law hit, pitched and fielded its way to a 7-1 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe in the Class L championship game at Palmer Field.

Ramos hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Ineson, a right-handed sidewinder, threw a complete-game four-hitter. At long last, the school and the city of Milford celebrated its first state baseball championship.

"Today, we were on another level," seventh-year coach Dennis Sweeney said. "It was almost spiritual. These guys are unbelievable."

Law, which started three sophomores and three juniors in the championship game, lost six out of its last eight games and finished the regular season 9-11. The 20th-seeded Lamwen were just another team in the playoffs. They upset five straight higher seeds, including No. 1 Guilford in the semifinals, to become one of the lowest seeds to win a title.

"During the season there was a lot of drama, a lot of obstacles to overcome with the team," said Ramos, who also squeezed a run home for a third RBI. "But we overcame that. We brought it together as a team. "We got one, we got two and then we started hitting the ball. The Maloney game (6-5 win) we started hitting. Guilford (6-3 win) we were crushing it. Here we just put everything together and won

our state championship."

Though seventh-seeded Fairfield Ludlowe (18-7) followed a similar formula to reach the final, the Falcons never captured that kind of magic in the title game. Law's batters consistently hit Ludlowe starter and losing pitcher Kevin Keys (7-3), who lasted until the fifth inning, and his three relievers. The Falcons, meanwhile, had no such luck against Ineson (6-3), a 6-foot-5 right-hander whose sweeping, submarine-style of throwing had them off balance. Ludlowe struck out four times and hit just five balls out of the infield all day.

"The thing with Iney is it's so tough to pick his ball up because he throws it at five different speeds," Sweeney said. "He actually threw a curveball today, which surprised the heck out of me. Iney is Iney. He throws strikes, gets groundouts. He's got a heart of gold."

It helped that Law's infield did all the dirty work behind him. They retired 14 batters on groundouts, including two inning-ending double plays. Sophomore third baseman Josh Rouse turned one to strand a pair of Ludlowe runners in the fourth. Shortstop Frank Peloso turned another to strand two more in the sixth.

"They were great," Ineson said of his infielders. "That's normally what happens for me. I try to get everyone out from the infield. I try not to let the outfielders work too much out there."

Peloso started the game with a single and Ramos jumped on a first-pitch fastball and sent it approximately 340 feet over the right-field fence to give Law a 2-0 lead minutes after the national anthem.

"Matt was having an awful, awful three practice days. He was frustrated with himself. He had his head down," Sweeney said. "I told him, 'This is the state championship game, you're a senior, one of the better athletes in the school. All it takes is one pitch, one time, one focus and you're going to get it.' And he did."

The blast, Ineson said, boosted Law's confidence to epic levels. In the dugout, Sweeney stoked the fires.

"I'm not one for false confidence," Sweeney said. "But after that I told them, all we have to do now is show up and we"ll go home with it."

Mike Nelson's RBI single off Ludlowe second baseman Dan Goldowski's glove made it 3-0. Mike Doran's two-out double in the left-center field gap made it 4-0 after three.

In the bottom of the fourth, Ludlowe finally scored on a fielding error, a bloop single from Keys and Jordan Hagel's RBI single. It was in business with two men on and just one out. But Law escaped when Rouse fielded Rob Ferarra's sharp grounder, stepped on the bag and threw across the diamond for an inning-ending double play.

"At that point, it was 4-1 and it was like, maybe we can get some momentum going our way and get some runs," Ludlowe coach Keith O'Rourke said. "But they turned that double play and that was a key moment in the game.

"They made all the plays. They played very well and definitely deserved what they got. But I'm proud of my guys. We had a great season. We'll be back."

In the sixth, Law scored three more runs on three hits, an error and Ramos' perfectly executed safety squeeze that scored Peloso for the final run. Two innings later, Law celebrated its unlikely title after senior Steve Kubik caught Tom Nagy's game-ending pop fly to right field.

"We're state champions. I don't know what to say right now," Ramos said. "I'm in shock."

Class L baseball championship at Palmer Field, Middletown

LAW301 003 0 — 7 9 1
FAIRFIELD LUDLOWE000 100 0 — 1 4 1
Records: Law 14-11, Fairfield Ludlowe 18-7
Batteries: L — Jim Ineson (W, 6-3) and Mike Doran; FL — Kevin Keys (L, 7-3), John Fitch (5), Pierce Onthank (6), Logan Hartman (7) and Jack Graham.
Home runs: L — Matt Ramos