Baseball Class B Sectionals

Worst in the first

Bulldogs’ sectional hopes undone by Highland’s six-run first inning

By RICHARD A. ROSS

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — Location, location, location. Not only is that the most significant determining factor when it comes to assessing value in real estate, it is also the most critical aspect of pitching. Most good high school hitters can zone in on a fastball and hit it a country mile, so a pitcher has to be able to locate his pitches and paint the corners if he wants to keep batters off balance.

Sullivan West’s Will O’Brien has been able to do that all year but in the biggest game of his career, the Class B quarterfinal versus the Highland Huskies on May 24, O’Brien couldn’t keep his fastball down and had trouble finding the strike zone. Understandably, O’Brien was just coming off of the disabled list from a back injury that sidelined him for more than a week. But Highland’s patience at the plate and timely hitting sent O’Brien packing after giving up five runs without recording an out in the top of the first.

After walking leadoff batter Steve Delmar and allowing him to take second on a passed ball, O’Brien gave up an RBI single to M.J. Pampinella and then walked Matt VanVorst. Tyler Wilkins cracked a single and two more runs scored as O’Brien’s woes were just beginning. A passed ball and a double by Tommy Roberts plated an additional pair of runs but Sullivan West coach Kurt Scheibe had seen enough. Matt Berger came on in relief but promptly gave up a booming triple to Robert Cifone. That run was charged to O’Brien but when the dust had settled, Highland led 6-0. It took Berger three more batters to get out of the inning but the powerful lefty settled down and only gave up two runs over the course of the next six innings.

The Bulldogs battled back, scoring one run in the second inning on a solo home run by Jim Moloney and another pair of runs from a third-inning blast from Matt Berger that hit the top of the trees in right field. Meanwhile Berger worked around a pair of walks and was assisted by a beautiful tag play by Joe Meyer at second base to keep the Huskies at bay over the next three innings. Highland stretched their lead to 8-3 in the top of the fifth when Berger hit Delmar, gave up a double to Pampinella and allowed a two-run single by VanVorst.

The Bulldogs got a run in the sixth and another in the seventh and had the tying run at the plate in the seventh inning. The Bulldogs loaded the bases in both the sixth and the seventh but couldn’t get the timely hit they needed to get over the top.

One of the game’s best defensive plays came when Garrett Owen blocked the plate and held on to the ball to tag out Nate Cruz in the sixth inning. Owen, who improved immensely both offensively and defensively, will return to play for the Bulldogs next season.

After soundly defeating Highland in football and then again in the basketball sectionals, the Huskies have become a rival of Sullivan West in the Class B wars during the past two years. Meyer, Berger and Moloney had two hits apiece in the loss.

Highland (7-9) went on to lose to eventual Class B champion Spackenkill by the score of 3-2. Spackenkill (20-5) defeated Marlboro 4-1 to take the Section 9 title.

For seniors Joe Meyer, John Glassel, Matt Berger, Justin Polizzi and Steve Musso, the loss represented their last game in a Sullivan West uniform. The boys have become a strong nucleus that Scheibe will greatly miss.

Losing their last game wasn’t easy to take. “It’s a tough one,” said Glassel, “but there’s not much you can do about it. We played our best. I’ll always remember football and I still get mad when I think about Rye,” he noted.

Musso added, “I wish I could play Rye again.”

As for Meyer, the all-around star athlete commented, “We won the sectional title in football and got to the finals in basketball. I hoped we would get there in baseball as well.”

Scheibe summed up the game and season this way. “We hit the ball well but when you give up six runs in the first inning it’s going to be tough. We battled back and had the tying run at the plate. These kids did everything they were asked to do all year long. It hasn’t been easy, especially losing clean-up hitter Steve Daley to ankle surgery and having Lloyd Shaffer out of the lineup for a few days with tendonitis in his shoulder. Looking back Scheibe said that the 12-9 Bulldogs had a number of winnable games that got away from them, including a pair of one-run losses to Burke, a loss to Liberty by two runs and a loss to Goshen by one run.

Assistant coach Tom Patterson was extremely complimentary when it came to describing the Bulldogs’ attitude and work ethic. “This is the best bunch of kids I’ve ever been around,” he said. The Bulldogs will return a strong core of young players next year and will drop to Class C competition based on declining enrollment.