Bulldogs Baseball Shut Out by Garden City

In baseball, experience almost always conquers youth. This was evident Tuesday, when the Hewlett baseball team was trumped 11-0 in a six inning game that was gray on and off the field for the Bulldogs.

Head coach Andy DeBernardo utilized a freshman and a sophomore pitcher, who struggled with their control at times, while the Trojans countered with senior co-captain Matt Focella, who threw a complete game one hitter, striking out eight.

“Garden City is a great team, and we hung with them for the first few innings, only falling back by [six] with our freshman and sophomore pitchers,” he said. “They’re a great program, and they’re great every year — that’s what we are trying to build here with our young guys.”

The Trojans' offense was able to jump on an inexperienced Bulldogs team that looked overmatched in their new conference. DeBernardo had limited pitching options, and chose to start freshman Zachary Benaharon, and used sophomore Luciano Marello in relief. The young pitchers never stood a chance against the mature Garden City lineup.

Benaharon and Marello would have to have been near perfect to compete with Focella Tuesday. Focella allowed just four base runners, and only two of them advanced past first base, and he ended the game with a double-play groundout.  Focella mixed his fastball, cut fastball and his off speed pitches in the zone, and there were very few comfortable swings from the Bulldogs.

“I told him already, in the three years I’ve been coaching him — this is the best I’ve seen him throw the ball, and he got stronger as the game went on,” Smith said.

Focella agreed that he wasn’t as sharp in the first inning as he was in the sixth.

“The first few batters, I wasn’t spotting my pitches real well. I started getting my off speed pitches across the plate, and I built from there until I got my fastball going,” he said. “It was great that the guys jumped out to an early lead. It helped knowing that I could just rear back and throw strikes.”

The teams face off again on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Garden City.