High school baseball: Amherst makes sure its No. 1 fan has a happy birthday with a comeback win over Keystone

AMHERST — Bruno Rositano's birthday was a special one Friday afternoon. "I'm pretty sure he's immortal," said Amherst coach Matt Rositano, his grandson, with a huge smile. "He's 91 and comes to every practice, every game. He's our No. 1 fan. He's so vibrant and loves to be around the kids." It was a great combination for Amherst on senior day to also celebrate Grandpa Rositano's birthday. The Comets spotted Keystone a two-run first-inning lead before rallying for a 5-2 win, capped by senior Jordan Koury's two-run homer in the sixth inning. Koury, who had struck out his first two times up, said he's been in a month-long slump. "I've had a really bad season," Koury said. "I've always been a pretty good hitter all my life but this season I've been struggling a little bit. I don't think I've had a hit in like a month but, yeah, saw the pitch, drove it, nice sunny day, took it out. Felt really good." Koury had fanned in his first two at-bats, making the home run a sweet way to cap his senior day. "He has had such a rough season at the plate," Rositano said after his team improved to 11-13. "For him to get that big home run gave us a little bit of breathing room. I just feel really happy for him." Keystone (11-12) started the game by scoring what turned out to be its only runs in the first inning. Brock Miller ripped a single to right-center to start the inning and stole second base. With two out, Callum Davies ripped a double down the third-base line to score Miller, and Victor Vilchez beat out a slow roller to second with Davies moving up to third. Davies scored on Amherst's only error of the game but the Wildcats wouldn't get another hit and, in fact, had only one more baserunner — a walk to Christian Beltran leading off the second. "I thought Ethan (Borgsteadt) threw really well," Rositano said. "Three errors (one physical, two mental) gave them an unearned run. That's not an ideal way to start a game. I thought he gave us five really good innings." Meanwhile, the Wildcats misplayed Cameron Gendic's sinking liner to right for a run-scoring triple in the third inning and made a couple of errors that led to the lead run in the fourth inning. "It's kind of been our Achilles' Heel — the mental mistakes and the physical mistakes," Keystone coach Bert Fitzgerald said. "But after getting beat down by Wellington (Thursday) and not really knowing what to expect, these guys are resilient. They've done this time and time again where they come back and play a good game." Gendics, a junior shortstop and brother of sophomore first baseman Christian Gendics, later came in to strike out all three hitters he faced in the sixth inning with Chase Mayer closing the door in the seventh by retiring the side in order. "I knew I had to come back after that one error (in the first inning)," Cameron Gendics said. "Totally messed up. I had to redeem myself." Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com.