The Columbia Baseball team won the Section II Class A Championship in thrilling fashion on Friday evening as they defeated Albany Academy 5-3 in extra innings at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy. Junior third basemen Johnny DelGrosso drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning, and then the Blue Devils added an insurance run before junior reliever Andrew Gabriel pitched a scoreless bottom half of the inning to end the game.
“The kids just have so much resiliency. They are a family and have each other’s backs,” Columbia coach Chris Dedrick told the Times Union after the game. “Getting down like that and coming back, that experience showed. Three years with this team and they got it done.”
The Blue Devils advance to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association regional on Saturday, June 3 at 6:00 p.m. They will face the winner of Jamesville-DeWitt (Section 3) at Onondaga Community College or Franklin Academy (Section 10) at St. Lawrence University.
Congratulations!