North Baseball Defeats Yorktown Huskers, 7-2, in Out Bracket Match

The Clarkstown North Rams played a great out bracket game against the Yorktown Huskers on Thursday afternoon.

Both teams played solid baseball: the Rams with only one error, although the Huskers made three.  Great pitching from Andrew Vaccarelli and RBIs from Solicito, Pochter, Perkins, Barbetto, Hodgins, and Fliegel won the day for the Rams, 7-2.

The game went scoreless for both teams until the bottom of the second.  With a man on first and second, Vaccarelli got hit in the hand by the pitch.  Though obviously painful, fortunately his hand was OK and he took first to load the bases. 

Joe Solicito came up next to hit a hard grounder into left field, bringing home Aaron LeBron.  Brandon Pochter brought in two more runs with a single to right field.  Andrew Perkins loaded the bases next to bring up Anthony Barbetto.  He took one strike and then connected to bring home Solicito and Pochter, making the score 5-0.  The Huskers brought in #10 to pitch and replace #19, who got them out of the inning.

Excellent pitching and fielding kept either side from scoring more runs until the bottom of the fourth.  With two outs, Barbetto and then Shileile hit singles, followed by an intentional walk to LeBron to load the bases.  The Huskies walked Hodgens to bring in Barbetto.  Brian Fliegel then came up to bat to bring home Shileile to make the score 7-0.  Andrew Vaccarelli hit a powerful shot to right field, however the right fielder tracked the ball and made a spectacular diving catch to close the inning.

The Huskers fought back in the top of the fifth to score two runs.  The first was off a grounder to third, which LeBron couldn't field on a tough running play.  The second was off a Husker slug to left field.  The Rams were able to get out of the inning on a hit to center field which they fielded to get the runner out at second.

The remainder of the game went scoreless, with solid fielding and pitching to close out the game, 7-2.  Vaccarelli had a great game overall, allowing only two runs and a total of six hits.  He walked three, struck out three, and had two double plays over 101 pitches.  Good pitching and underclassmen who stepped up to make some big hits brought the Rams their win against Yorktown.

This allowed them to move on to play against #1 ranked R.C. Ketcham.