Quakers Narrowly Edge Harrison In Baseball

Harrison was in this game until the very end, but at the end of the day it wouldn't be enough as the Huskies baseball team fell to Horace Greeley 8 - 6 Tuesday afternoon at Harrison High School.

The lead bounced back and forth between the two squads throughout the first few innings. Early in the game both teams were able to get consistent hits until the score finally settled in at 4-4 in the fourth inning.

Then the Harrison defense let their pitcher down. The left side of the Harrison infield combined for four errors in the middle innings. Both the shortstop and the third basemen for Harrison had errors that forced Bruckner to throw extra pitches at points throughout the game.

Giving the Quakers extra outs hurt the Harrison team, putting the Huskies in a hole that they would not be able to dig themselves out of.

Bruckner's outing was short this time. He only gave up three earned runs in his 4 - 2/3 innings, but shaky team defense forced the Harrison coaching staff to pull Bruckner from the game.

Horace Greeley's Trevor Ganzi pitched a complete game and gave up six runs. His control was just as good late in the game as it was in the beginning and Ganzi gave the team the quality start they needed to hold on for the win.

The big blow of the game came early, as Harrison gave up a deep blast to Steve Haynes to lead off the fifth inning. The ball cracked off the bat and quickly flew over the left field fence.

Late in the game Harrison used Brendan O'Shea in middle relief. O'Shea's submarine delivery made it difficult for the Horace Greeley batters to get any consistent contact and he looked like he might become a valuable member of the Harrison bullpen.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Huskies took the field down 8-5 and had a good shot at stringing together a rally. The first batter of the inning popped out before Robbie Carducci singled between first and second base and eventually reached second base after a wild pitch. Harrison's Michael Chiarella then popped up short in the outfield for the second out before Mike DeLacey drilled a line drive to deep center for an RBI triple.

Down by two with a runner on third and two outs, the game came down to Harrison's starting pitcher, Max Bruckner. Bruckner battled against Ganzi at the plate but after several pitchers he grounded out to the third baseman.

Horace Greeley's record improves to 6-2-1 and Harrison falls to 4-5 on the season.