St. Aloysius Seventh Grade Baseball

Friday, 27 April 2012 00:00

The forecasted rain held off long enough on Saturday, April 21 to allow the seventh grade team from St. Aloysius to play their home opener under clear skies. An early pitcher’s duel turned into a one-sided affair, as St. Al’s ran away with an 8-1 victory over St. Patrick of Huntington in a six-inning game ended by the approaching twilight.

The game once again came down to which team’s pitcher had the best control, and St. Al’s Jacob Seidenberg once again proved to be the ace of the day, scattering five hits while striking out nine, and only walking two batters for the complete game victory. Jacob was aided by a tight defense which turned in a flawless fielding exposition, including two inning-ending putouts by second baseman Michael Young, and a sixth-inning deep fly played perfectly by left-fielder Jay Korman, allowing Jacob to face his final batter (after 84 pitches), resulting in a three pitch strikeout.

St. Patrick led off the game with a hard single, handled quickly by St. Al’s right fielder Ben Newman, but a stolen base put the runner in scoring position with no outs. Then, a perfectly executed pickoff move and rundown (scored 1-4-5-6) nailed St. Patrick’s leadoff hitter between second and third, erasing the threat. So after exchanging goose eggs in the first three frames, the St. Al’s team once again drew first blood, this time without the aid of a hit. After two walks and a balk loaded the bases, Nick Bornstein stole home, sliding just under the tag of the pitcher to stake St. Al’s to a 1-0 lead going into the third inning.

St. Patrick tied the game at 1-1 on a huge triple to deep centerfield, but the St. Al’s defense executed a perfect “double-cut” started by center fielder Danny Kosofsky, to keep the batter from scoring. St. Al’s responded with three runs in the bottom of the third, highlighted by Jordan Greiff‘s leadoff single and Jared Schwartz‘s RBI single two batters later. With a 4-1 cushion, Jacob turned on cruise control, needing only 10 pitches each during the fourth and fifth innings to quiet the St. Patrick bats.  

Meanwhile, St. Al’s was tuning up the band with a hit parade of their own, scoring two runs each in the fifth and sixth innings. Highlights included the fifth inning two-out rally started by Max “the human target” Chafiian, who after getting hit by a pitch (the first of two times in the game), chugged from first to third on a massive double down the left field line by Jonny Farkas, then scored on a bloop single to short right field by Nick Bornstein. In the sixth, it was Jay Korman starting up another two-out rally with a hard hit single, Jordan Greiff drawing a full-count walk, and both being driven in on Jacob Seidenberg’s two-run single for the final two runs of the game.

It was a total team effort today, and the kids have a lot to be proud of in pulling off their first win of the season. They hope to keep up their winning ways when they face St. Peter in their next game on Saturday, April 28 at 3 p.m. at home (Great Neck North High School).