New Kent ousts top-seeded Lafayette in conference baseball semifinal

New Kent Trojan players celebrate after their 3-1 conquest of Lafayette's Rams in the Conference 25 baseball semifinal.

Alan Chamberlain photos

A three-run, fifth inning explosion plus the pitching of Chris Beshai equaled a stunning 3-1 New Kent Trojan upset of Lafayette’s top-seeded Rams in the Conference 25 baseball tournament semifinals held at York.

Today’s shocker propelled the fifth-seeded Trojans into tomorrow’s (Thursday) tournament final against the Park View-Poquoson winner. The contest is set for 7 p.m. at York. Today’s win also qualified New Kent, now 15-7, for the first round of next week’s region tourney.

“We’re pretty happy right now,” said Trojan coach Ronnie Cox. “The kids did great. Chris pitched well and we played really good defense.”

Beshai scattered four hits in going the distance, striking out five and walking only one. He helped quell a Ram uprising in the fifth by picking a runner off first base.

The Rams scored their lone run in the sixth on a two-out walk to Mark Rivera and Andre Lipcius’ single. But second baseman Michael Carpenter smothered a hot grounder off the bat of Luke Lipcius in time for a force out at second to end the Ram’s final scoring threat. Lafayette went down in order in the seventh.

“Chris has that little cutter he throws,” Cox said. “He threw strikes and kept Lafayette off balance. Then we played good defense. We pounced on balls they put in play.”

Beshai received all the offense he would need in the fifth. Steven Carpenter singled to center with one away. On the play, the Ram defense threw out Clay Simpson (single) at the plate for the second out, but no matter. Michael Carpenter followed with a double into the right-center field gap to drive in his brother for the first run.

A 45-minute lightning delay interrupted play, but when action resumed, the Rams elected to intentionally walk Tyler Lambert. The strategy could have set up a force out at any base, but the next hitter, Kevin Karaffa, made the Rams pay for their decision. Karaffa lined a double to the fence in right-center, scoring both runners for a 3-0 lead.

“We were knocking at the door in the first, second, and third, but we needed somebody to knock it down,” said Cox. “Michael got that double, and that’s what you’d expect from a senior team captain.

“That got us going,” the coach added. “Then all we had to do was play defense and get great pitching.”

New Kent’s Chris Beshai goes into his pitching motion on the way to striking out five and limiting the Rams to four hits.

Relief shows on the face of winning pitcher Chris Beshai as he is congratulated by catcher Zach Ferrell.