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Over the past two days Fairfield Ludlowe has learned that no matter how close or ugly the game may be, a win is a win. Despite trailing to both Darien and Rockville in the CIAC Class L state tournament, Ludlowe has managed to reach the quarterfinals for the third consecutive season. The Falcons defeated Rockville 5-4 on Thursday in the tournament's second round in a game played at Kiwanis Field on a sunny afternoon.The Rams took a 2-0 lead in the first inning off of starting pitcher Zach Garoffolo, who settled down as Ludlowe took the lead. Rockville battled back and then had the bases loaded in the top of the seventh trailing 5-4, but could not score, as Taylor Brown came in to record the final out on his first pitch. "This wasn't an easy one at all, but they're never easy when you get to this point in the season," said Ludlowe head coach Keith O'Rourke.Ludlowe (20-5) will now face top-seeded East Lyme (19-2) in the quarterfinals at a neutral site, Quigley Stadium in West Haven at 3:30 on Saturday, June 5. The Falcons have won their past 10 consecutive games, dating back to a win over rival-Fairfield Warde, following a four-game losing streak in March."It wasn't our best effort of the season, but I guess when you're a good team, and I consider us a good team, you can not have your best effort and sometimes get away with it" said O'Rourke. "In the quarterfinals you're not going to be able to make mistakes like we did today."Ludlowe was led once again by senior captain and catcher Rob Ferrara, who was 3-for-3 with a RBI and two runs scored. Yesterday Ferrara hit the game-tying home run in the sixth inning. "He's in a zone right now. There's a reason why he's regarded as one of the top players in the state," O'Rourke said.Ferrara, who will play at Division I Marist College next season, said "I'm just seeing the ball well, I took an aggressive approach today."Garoffolo got into trouble in the first inning when he allowed the first to runners to reach and two runs to score. But he struck out the last two batters of the inning and retired 12 of the next 13 Rockville batters. He finished the game with five strikeouts.Ludlowe did not waste much time getting the runs back. In the bottom of the second Ferrera and Garaffolo singled. Alex Wright drove in Ferrara and Garaffolo later scored on a double-steal, taking home while Wright was thrown out at second. Ludlowe took the lead in the next inning as Billy Malone singled and TomNagy drove him in with a single of his own that got past the centerfielder. The Falcons would extend the lead to 5-2, jumping all over Rockville starter Austin West, recording nine hits in three innings.Three errors in the top of the fifth led to two unearned runs off of Garoffolo, who then pitched out of trouble with a strikeout of West and a popout from Jeremy Susi.Ludlowe could not get a run off of the Rockville reliever, Eric Chase, setting up a wild sixth and seventh innings. Alex Capoziello entered the game for Garaffolo and struggled with his control. He allowed an infield hit in the sixth, but got out of the inning despite the runner advancing to third base with one out. In the seventh Capoziello got the first out on a nice diving stop at third base by freshman Mike Kochiss, who had the game-winning hit yesterday, but then walked the next batter, Kevin Babcock. He got a strikeout of Steve Monaghan, although the second strike came on a foul ball that appeared to be fair past the third baseline, but was called foul. Capoziello walked the next two batters to load the bases with two outs. That is when Brown came on to get the final batter to ground out to first base."This win says a lot about our team and our team character. We are a tough bunch," Ferrara said. "We have a lot of seniors on this team and this is our last game on our home field, and we don't want to go out with a loss."
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