The Army West Point baseball team will play in the upcoming NCAA tournament, and it wouldn’t be there without Ray Bartoli, a senior pitcher from Wolcott.
Bartoli finished 1/3 inning shy of throwing two complete games in the Patriot League tournament. He went 2-0 and yielded four runs (two earned) and 13 hits to go along with nine strikeouts, two walks and two hit batsmen. Bartoli recorded 24 flyouts and 17 groundouts over the two starts. He made the all-tournament team for his efforts.
In his first start, Army faced elimination in the third game of its best-of-three divisional semifinal series against Lafayette. Bartoli threw 8 2/3 innings and gave up three runs (two earned) on seven hits. He struck out four and walked two. Bartoli yielded 13 flyouts and six groundouts. After the win, Bartoli gave the credit to his junior catcher Cameron Cerruto, who happened to play for Torrington High School in the NVL.
“The biggest thing today was having trust that whatever (Cerruto) and (head coach Jim Foster) threw down there, I was just going to have to go and execute,” Bartoli said in an article posted on Army baseball’s website. “I filled it up pretty well I thought.”
Next up was the best-of-three championship series at top-seeded Lehigh. Again, it was a winner-take-all third game, and Bartoli was given the start. Army won the game, 6-1, to advance to the NCAA tournament. All Bartoli did was fire a complete game. He gave up one run on six hits to go along with five strikeouts and two hit batsmen. Bartoli retired 11 batters on flyouts and 11 more on groundouts.
The series was played last Wednesday and Thursday in Bethlehem, Penn. Army won the first game in a rout, 22-7. The teams decided to play a doubleheader Thursday because of impending wet weather on Friday. Lehigh won the first game of the doubleheader, 3-1, which set up the winner-take-call second game.
“My mindset was just to continue to execute pitches. And then when we got to the later innings it was just to trust my catcher and what he was putting down,” Bartoli said in an article posted on the team website.
He again got help offensively from Cerruto, who led the tournament with three home runs and made the all-tournament team alongside Bartoli.
Army West Point takes on Texas Tech at noon on Friday in the Texas Tech Regional. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Photo credit: Army West Point athletics
