Glen Cove Baseball to Match Up With Clarke in Playoffs

It's cliché central in the dugout for Glen Cove High's baseball team heading into the playoffs.

Playing hot when you need it most.

Carrying all the right momentum.

Big hits in big spots.

Those are just some of the ways to describe Big Red over the past three weeks. Coach Carmine Rotolo's club is on fire (cliché No. 4). Winner of six of its past seven games, the team launched from 10th place to seventh heading into the weekend, and securing double-elimination designation in the process.

If Big Red finished out of the top eight slots, the team would be out if it dropped one playoff game. Now, however, Big Red can lose one game and still survive.

But losing isn't something this team is accustomed to as of late.

After a very rough 1-10 start to the 2010 campaign in the very competitive Class A-1 , Big Red earned two-game sweeps over Bethpage and New Hyde Park, and splits with Island Trees and Plainedge.

Glen Cove faces Clarke Saturday in the opening round of the Class A playoffs at 12 p.m. at Clarke High School in Westbury.

Clarke, the No. 2 team in Class A, enters as a known powerhouse, with a 13-4 record. But one of those losses came at home against Big Red. Glen Cove beat Clarke in extra innings, 3-2, as senior Peter Cappiello pitched all eight innings, and senior Richie Maccarone went 2-for-3 with a triple in that game.

An equally-as-exciting finish took place in Big Red's final game of the season, which secured the seventh spot.

On Thursday, Glen Cove came from back from a 5-3 deficit in the seventh inning to win 6-5 against Bethpage. Without the win, Glen Cove would've finished eighth and faced top-seeded Wantagh.

With playoffs on Saturday, it allows Rotolo to start his No. 1 pitcher, Cappiello, on a full four days of rest.

It's like having an ace in the hole.