Central Bucks East's Yanni hits walk-off slam against North Penn
A celebratory dousing of water in baseball is usually saved for a league or playoff championship. But the Central Bucks East players gave David Yanni that treatment, and deservedly so, for his late-game heroics Tuesday afternoon in a Suburban One League Continental Conference showdown against North Penn.
A celebratory dousing of water in baseball is usually saved for a league or playoff championship.
But the Central Bucks East players gave David Yanni that treatment, and deservedly so, for his late-game heroics Tuesday afternoon in a Suburban One League Continental Conference showdown against North Penn.
Yanni, a senior shortstop and lefty hitter, crushed a walk-off grand slam to right field in the bottom of the seventh to lift the host Patriots to a 6-4 victory in windy Doylestown.
"With the bases loaded and a 2-0 count, I knew I wasn't going to get an off-speed pitch," the 6-foot, 200-pounder said. "I was sitting on a fastball, got one a little above the belt, and got a good swing on the ball."
With C.B. East down by 4-2, Nick Chimera's leadoff single to shortstop, Cameron Komonchak's single to right, and C.J. Gilmer's misplayed sacrifice bunt toward the mound set the stage for Yanni's no-outs blast.
"You can't ask for anything more from one of the best players on your team," Patriots skipper Kyle Dennis said. "He's hitting everything hard lately."
In the first, Yanni, a third-year starter who is ticketed for Pittsburgh, tripled to right and scored on Tom Prato's two-out single to right.
C.B. East, which was limited to four hits through six innings, improved to 9-4 overall and 7-2 in the National Conference. North Penn slipped to 8-2 and 6-2.
The Knights did all of their scoring in the fourth, with Matt Marino, Mason Nadeau, Jared Melone, and Mike Christy hitting RBI singles to chase starter Eric Chase.
Of his slam, Yanni, who is batting .372 with nine RBIs and eight runs, said, "It couldn't have come at a better time. We really needed this win."
Yanni is one of the finalists for the school's Michael Wayne Grim Scholarship, given annually to a senior student-athlete who maintains at least a 3.8 grade-point average and "clearly demonstrates leadership, maturity, and sportsmanship qualities."
This year, the 18-year-old from Pipersville took advanced-placement classes in statistics and macroeconomics. He plans to major in business at Pittsburgh.
"His baseball IQ is off the charts," Dennis said. "He really understands the game. It plays slower for him."
North Penn 000 040 0 - 4 8 2
Central Bucks East 100 100 4 - 6 7 1
WP: Tyler Davis. LP: Paul Haynie: 2B: NP-Kadar Namey. 3B: CBE-David Yanni. HR: CBE-Yanni.
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