The Rossi brothers, Matt and Charles, will always be remembered for their special place in Pacelli High School sports history following the Vikings’ 10-5 victory Saturday over Landmark Christian in Game 3 of a best-of-three series that clinched Pacelli’s first-ever Class A state baseball championship.

Matthew Rossi played the game of his life, going 4-for-4 with three home runs and five RBI, and Charles Rossi pitched the final two-plus innings to close out the state title-clinching victory.

Charles Rossi was the hero in Pacelli’s 4-1 victory in Game 2, played Friday, in which he had three RBI and pitched a complete-game five-hitter.

Game 3 could best be described as a home run derby; Pacelli hit four home runs — Stuart Wilkerson was the only other Vikings player to hit one —and Landmark hit two. Four of Pacelli’s nine hits were homers.

A solo home run by Michael Leonard in the top of the first inning handed Landmark a 1-0 lead, but Matt Rossi quickly erased Landmark’s advantage with a three-run home run in the bottom half of the inning that barely hooked just inside the left field foul pole.

Landmark’s Tanner Bryant led off the second with a solo home run that sailed far over the left field fence and probably still has not landed to make it a one-run game. But that’s as close as the War Eagles would get.

Pacelli added a run on a sacrifice fly by David Miller in the second, and Wilkerson and Matt Rossi connected on back-to-back home runs in the third to make it 6-2.

Leonard made it 6-4 with a two-run double to right-center field in the fifth off Charles Rossi, but Rossi shook off the hit, allowing only one more run — on a sixth-inning sacrifice fly by Jonathan Roberts — the rest of the way.

Defense played a key role in Pacelli’s victory.

With runners on second and third and two outs in the fifth, center fielder Sammy Oates made a beautiful inning-ending diving catch to prevent at least two runs from scoring.

And second baseman Miller made a fully extended dive to snag a grounder by Leonard and gun him down at first from his knees for the first out of the seventh inning.

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