New City Falls to Haverstraw in Semifinals of ARC All Star Baseball Tourney

The New City baseball All Stars fell to Haverstraw in the semifinals of the 2010 ARC All Star Invitational Tournament at Zukor Park in New City.

New City began the tournament with two wins and two losses to get to the semifinals as the wild card.  Despite the two losses, with a 4-1 victory over Congers and a 6-3 victory over Nyack/Valley Cottage, they had proved themselves a skilled opponent with a good shot at taking the semifinals and moving onto the finals.  Though they put up a great effort and played excellent baseball throughout, they were unable to defeat the talented Haverstraw, who took home a 2-1 victory.

In what was a largely defensive game, #4 Eric Lasky led his team as starting pitcher.  He pitched into the fifth, striking out three, walking two, allowing only two runs.  #1 Jack Galligan relieved him, and, backed up by great defensive plays from his teammates, including  a big catch by Nicholas Fiore, struck out two to keep Haverstraw scoreless for the rest of the game.

Lasky completed a great all around performance by bringing home the only run for his team.  #2 Fiore and #00 Austin Priesel had solid offensive games as well, as each batted three for three.  Despite the solid offensive effort, New City could not get any more runs past the excellent defense of Haverstraw.  Defensively, New City played practically flawless baseball, as they only let up two runs, however that was enough for Haverstraw.

New City took the lead early in the game, with Lasky bringing home one run in the top of the first to put his team on the board and in the lead 1-0.  They then maintained the lead in the bottom of the inning, however they were unable to build on it in the top of the second.  Haverstraw then came up and evened the score in the bottom of the inning.  The game then went scoreless as excellent defense prevailed for the next two and a half innings.

Haverstraw then took the lead in the top of the fifth when they brought home their second run of the game.  New City was able to close out the inning after this to give them one last chance for a comeback in the top of the sixth.  With bases loaded and no outs, it looked like New City was going to do just that.  Unfortunately for them, Haverstraw refused to fold under the pressure and buckled down to strikeout two and secure their win on a pop out to first.

With the dramatic game concluded, both teams shook hands and New City left the field as Haverstraw celebrated their hard-earned win.  Both teams played excellent baseball as it remained anyone's game throughout the night.  Despite the loss, New City's manager Rocco Fiore was pleased with his team's performance.  "It was basically a well pitched game," said Fiore, "we played great defense but ran out of luck at the end."

The tournament was set to conclude today with the finals at 7:45 p.m. when Suffern vs. Haverstraw, but a storm that swept across Rockland delayed played until Saturday morning.