East Catholic and St. Joseph had fallen to the Devils in a twin bill that opened the season. The Trojans put the first two runners on base with a walk and a single before Stratford catcher John Sulzicki stalled the rally when he threw out a runner attempting to steal.
In the bottom of the inning, Mike Martonik hit a grounder through a drawn-in infield to plate the winning run. Stratford showed off its bunting game, received a stellar mound performance from Martonik, and had two double plays to knock off Barlow in a game switched from Redding on Friday because of an unplayable field. Gonzalez ran hard out of the box and slid safely into third, where he scored on a passed ball before retreating into the shaded area behind the Stratford dugout for a well-earned rest.
Martonik, who finished with a three-hit, no-walk performance through six innings, retired the first six batters he faced before the Falcons' Greg Colby reached on an infield single. A fielder's choice grounder to Martin at short, one of Martonik's five strikeouts, and a pop-up to Nick Riley at first, ended the inning. Moresco looked to tag up and advance to third, but Stratford third-baseman Kevin Norris took the throw from Sadowy and his dive to the bag caught Moresco's foot to complete the 8-8-5 double play.
After a leadoff walk, he stole second, then got a great jump and scored on Gonzalez's RBI single to left for a 3-0 lead. Boehme plunked Carboni with his first pitch to plate Gonzalez, and Andrew Carlson came on in relief for Barlow. Barlow (1-3) got on the board in the bottom of the sixth, but it cost them two outs to do so.
Aaron Kaufman singled for the Falcons' third hit, and Matt Lisi's ball was misplayed to put runners on the corners.
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