NEW BRITAIN >> Brandon Grover’s two-out single in the bottom of the 12th lifted Rocky Hill to a 1-0 victory over defending state champion St. Joseph in the Class M semifinals Tuesday night at Beehive Field.
The top-seeded Terriers advance to face Haddam-Killingworth, which needed 13 innings to defeat Plainfield 7-5 in the other semifinal earlier in the afternoon. Due to that game’s late end, the Rocky Hill-St. Joseph semifinal didn’t start until just before 8 p.m.
After 11 1/2 scoreless innings, Trevor Whalen led off the bottom of the 12th with a single and the Terriers eventually loaded the bases with one out. After a groundout and a play at the plate erased one run, Grover stepped in with two outs.
He fell behind in the count 1-2 before his game-winning heroics.
“I was just trying to stay with it,” he told Connecticut Post. “I didn’t know (if we’d ever score). I thought we could be here until tomorrow.”
ST. JOSEPH 000 000 000 000–0 5 0
ROCKY HILL 000 000 000 001–1 7 0
SJ: Nick Williams, Jake Amoroso (9, L) and Ishmael Herrera. RH — Tom Seaver, Spencer Bunting (11, W) and Trevor Whalen.
Records: St. Joseph 18-8, Rocky Hill 22-2.
Probably rates up there with one of the best high school baseball playoff games. 11 1/2 scoreless innings! No errors by either team through 12 innings! What a memorable game!