It's Over: Mamaroneck Baseball's Season Ends With Loss to Suffern

The game was considered one of the biggest of the year in Section I. It was supposed to be the bats of the Mamaroneck Tigers against the arm of Suffern ace pitcher Robbie Aviles.

But it only took twelve pitches to change everything.

After Aviles had to leave the game in the top of the first with an apparent groin injury, Nick Kulbaba pitched six and 2/3 scoreless innings and held Mamaroneck to only two hits as the Tigers were defeated 3-0 by Suffern in the semifinals of the Class AA Section I Playoffs.

The loss snapped an 18-game playoff winning streak for the Tigers and ended their reign as two-time defending Class AA state champions.

The game started innocently enough, but after Aviles threw one pitch to Mamaroneck's number three hitter, Sam Gruppo, Suffern's coaching staff came to the mound and took him out of the game.

Kulbaba, who was starting in right field, came in and the game took on a whole new feel.

"In a big-time playoff game, especially against the two time state champs, it's huge," Kulbaba said. When he was asked about replacing Aviles, he responded, "I had to have the mind set of just going at them and doing my job."

Kulbaba finished the inning with two strikeouts. In the bottom half of the first, an RBI single by second baseman Anthony Pirro gave Suffern a 1-0 lead.

The game remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth, when Dominic Kulbaba, Nick's brother, had a two-out RBI Single to extend the lead to 2-0.

At the end of five innings, Mamaroneck had been held hitless and Coach Mike Chiapparelli said the preparation all week for Aviles and the sudden change to Kulbaba hurt his team.

"The problem was that I got my team ready to hit a 90-mile-per-hour guy all week, to hit a big guy, and then they bring in a guy who throws 80," he said.

Gruppo agreed that the team was thrown off by the change.

"We had our eyes set on Aviles for four or five days and we were pumped to face him," he said. "I guess it threw us off a bit."

Leading off the sixth, shortstop Matt Mezansky got a base hit to right field to break up the no-hitter for Kulbaba, but he was still in command. He got the next three batters in order. In the bottom of the sixth, Dominic Kulbaba added a second RBI single to extend the lead to 3-0.

Mamaroneck would get a hit in the top of the seventh, but it was erased on a pick-off throw, and the Tigers never seriously threatened again.

Though the run of state tiles for Mamaroneck may be over for now, the future of the team is still bright.

"We have a really good team," Chiapparelli said. "We'll keep on coming."