Playing against the 2022 Section II Class AA baseball champions provided Michael Currao and his Colonie teammates ample incentive May 5 at East Side Rec for a night game against Saratoga Springs. By the time the game had concluded, Currao had accomplished something he had never done before and the Garnet Raiders rallied to produce a significant victory.
Trailing 5-3 in the top of the seventh, Currao, known as “Moose” by his teammates, tripled to right to complete a cycle. Colonie scored twice to force extra innings. The Garnet Raiders scored two more runs in the eighth to prevail 7-5.
Currao hit a home run in the first, singled in the third and doubled in the fifth.Â
“We had been struggling to get big-time hits in big-time situations,” Colonie coach Mike Morrissey said. “You felt every time he was at the plate, he was going to square up the baseball. Something about that night, he just found the barrel. One of his hits was a bloop single, but the others he squared the ball up. We clearly don’t win that game without him.”
“We had the sheer will to win,” Currao said. “It felt great to hit for the cycle. It is definitely something that does not happen in baseball a lot. It is probably the best thing to happen in my baseball career, but in reality it was better to help us get the win.”
For his efforts, Currao has been selected as the Times Union’s Boys’ Athlete of the Week for May 1-7.
Currao’s activities at the plate opened when he clubbed a first-pitch fastball over the wall in left-center.
“I got a great pitch to hit in the first inning and attacked it,” Currao said.
Currao, a junior who is hitting .450 and batting behind senior shortstop Tyler Figueroa, credits Morrissey for keeping this season’s squad in contention following a rash of key graduation losses from the 2022 squad that finished Suburban…
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