Sloppy Play Dooms Cougars Baseball Against Powerful MacArthur in Semifinal Playoff Opener

The Cougars baseball team has been flying high as of late.

But coming into the Class AA semifinals, Kennedy knew they were going to have their hands full with their opponents, top-seeded MacArthur.

The Generals proved to be too much for the Cougars to handle in the first of a three-game series, as they got hammered 11-1 yesterday at MacArthur High School.

"Today they were the better team, and they just beat the hell out of us," Kennedy coach Eric Passman said.

Monday just flat out wasn't a good day for the Cougars. The game started out all right for them, as they remained even at zero with MacArthur through three innings. However things began going south for Kennedy in the fourth inning, when sloppy play began impacting the game.

In the bottom half of that inning, Rob Gaertner of MacArthur led off with an infield single. Kennedy starting pitcher Kevin Archbold attempted to pick Gaertner off, but threw the ball into right field. Gaertner would have been out had the throw been on target, but instead he came all the way around to score the first run of the game.

"Against this team, if you make mistakes like that, this is the result," Passman said.

Later in the inning, with Mario Angieri on second and Mike Scro on first, Generals' third baseman Sal Sanquini hit a single into right field. Sanquini got himself caught in between first and second when he assumed the runners in front of him would advance. With him caught in a pickle, Angieri attempted to score from third. The throw from Cougars first baseman Matt Bruno came in low to catcher Joe Gallito and he was unable to handle it, allowing Angieri to score and Scro to advance to third. Scro would later score on a sacrifice fly.

"We made some mistakes on the bases today that ended up looking good for us," MacArthur coach Steve Costello said. "We're very athletic and we can put pressure on a team that way because we have a lot of guys that can really go."

The next inning was filled with more mistakes, in the form of walks. After a lead-off single, Archbold walked the next three batters, resulting in a run. Scro then hit a bases-clearing triple to make the score 7-1.

Later, in the sixth inning, Scro hit a monster home run to left-center. This capped a 3-4 day at the plate with five RBI in the game.

"Mike had a phenomenal year last year as a junior, all county, all world, all everything and this year struggled all the while," Costello said. "And I think we finally got him back, and boy what good timing cause he's an animal."

The Cougars will try to force a third game in the series today when they host the Generals at 4:30 p.m.