Kennedy Baseball Sweeps Series Against Long Beach to Remain Perfect in Conference

The Kennedy Cougars baseball team took down the Long Beach Marines on the road Thursday morning, 7-0, to close out their second consecutive series sweep in Conference AA-III.

Andrew Wood picked up the win with five shutout innings while striking out four and giving up three hits. Brian Serota went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Noah Shulman went 3-for-3 just a day after hitting for the cycle against the Marines.

Serota and Michael McCormick got Kennedy on the board in the second inning with an RBI each. Robert Delgado extended the lead with an RBI double in the top of the third, followed by a pair of RBI singles by Jordan Leopold and Serota.

Shulman hit a leadoff single that was stretched into three bases after an error and later scored on a sacrifice fly ball to add onto the lead in the top of the fourth inning.

Wood closed out his day of work on the mound after the fifth and John Scharfman came in to pitch a hitless final two innings for Kennedy to close out the win and the series sweep.

This was a tough one with their best pitcher coming out today. Overall, it was just a tough series for us,” Long Beach head coach Jason Zizza said.

Heroes: In the three games, Wood picked up two wins, the first after pitching one inning before the Cougars won in extra innings. He now has three wins on the season.

“It was good to get a quality start today. The offense was great the last three games,” Wood said. “We played well overall and it is solid defense and timely offense that wins games.”

On the offensive side for Kennedy, Shulman went a combined 9-for-11 against Long Beach including four RBI’s and a rare cycle in the second game.

“I’ve changed a couple of things from the beginning of the season and everything is getting easier for me as the season goes on,” Shulman said.

Turning Point: The three-run third inning extended the Kennedy lead to 5-0 and gave Wood some breathing room against a Long Beach lineup that struggled to find hits.

Quotable: “Every team in our league is pretty good, so getting a sweep like this is critical. It is very important to get wins,” Kennedy head coach Eric Passman said. “Wood did a good job today and used his change in speed well.”

“Losing the first game was a big letdown and that carried over into the second game," Zizza said. "This league is challenging and we will definitely be up to it.”

Bottom Line: Kennedy has started its conference schedule with a perfect 6-0 record, but has series against Calhoun, Carey and Mepham awaiting.

Long Beach fell to 0-6 in conference and 1-7 overall, despite putting up a solid effort against the defending Nassau County champion Calhoun Colts to open the season.

Key Stat: Kennedy outscored Long Beach by a combined score of 25-3 in the three-game series.

Series Roundup: Kennedy scored the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run on an RBI single by David Leiderman in the ninth inning of the series-opening game. He also knocked in the game-tying run in the top of the seventh to force extra innings en route to a 6-3 win on the road.

Shulman hit for the cycle and drove in four runs and Evan Krohn went 2-for-3 with two home runs and four RBI’s as well in the second game. Kennedy pulled away with a 12-0 victory as Jordan Boyer picked up the win.

Who’s Next: Kennedy @ Calhoun, April 25, 10:30 a.m.; Long Beach vs. Mepham, April 25, 10:30 a.m.

Box Score (for 4/21/11):

WP- Wood (K)

LP- Lamontagne (LB)