North Baseball Falls to North Rockland in Nail-Biter

The Clarkstown North Rams played a close and competitive baseball game against the Red Raiders of North Rockland High School, which ended in the bottom of the 7th with a ground ball fielded for an out at first.

By the bottom of the second, it was 3-0 in favor of North Rockland.  Andrew Perkins led off the inning by hitting a single to third which turned into a double on an error  at first.  He followed this up during  a James Hodgens at bat by stealing third. Hodgens followed this up with an RBI, though he was out at first.  

With two outs, Spencer Cohen got the second RBI off of another error at first.  This brought Anthony Barbetto up, who hit a triple to deep right to tie up the game. Brandon Pochter could not continue the run, as he ended the inning with a pop out to center field.

With bases loaded in the top of the third, the Raiders hit a fly ball to right, which the right fielder barely missed to let two runs score.  With a man at first and second, the next batter hit a single to drive in another two runs.  The Rams then rallied to pull off a great double play and finished off the top of the inning by catching a runner attempting to steal second.

The Raiders started the bottom of the third by getting two outs.  Unfortunately for them, they let the Rams get a man on first and second after a series of errors.  Trombetta capitalized on this with a single to center field which drove in another run.  They finished off the inning with one more RBI from Brian Fliegel.  The third closed with a score of 7-5.

Billy Gonoud came in as pitcher to start the fourth.  After two outs, the Raiders got a triple, followed by another triple to bring the score to 8-5.  The top of the  inning closed with a grounder and out at first.  North could not get their offense going in the bottom of the fourth and the inning closed without another run being scored.

The Raiders then pulled ahead by two in the top of the fifth, however the Rams answered back with two runs of their own.  This brought them to the top of the sixth with a score of 10-7.  Jon Studwell came in as pitcher with a clutch 1, 2, 3 inning.  The Rams made use of the opportunity and tied the game 10-10 to bring them into the seventh.

To start the seventh, an infield pop fly should have been the first out of the inning, but the wind took it and the ball dropped in for a single.  The Raiders advanced the runner with a bunt to get their first out.  They then hit a single to get a man on first and third.  They followed this up by stealing second and hitting a single to score, while leaving men on first and third.  A second error attempting to pick off a runner stealing second gave the Raiders another run.  Studwell was able to strike out the batter, however, North Rockland advanced its runners with another base hit.  The winning run for the Raiders was scored off a grounder past the short stop.  Studwell was able to close off the inning by fielding a soft grounder and throwing to first for the out.

Dan Roman came in for North Rockland to close out the game.  With bases loaded and one out, Trombetta got another RBI to bring  the score to 13-11, however the man at third was called out.  Brian Fliegel came up and hit in the second run of the inning, to bring them within one of the Raiders.  Unfortunately, the Rams couldn't finish out the inning and lost on a grounder to third which was thrown to get the runner out at first.

The exciting performance was to be expected, as both teams entered the game with records of 7-6.  The two teams played solid, intelligent baseball, however the Raiders were able to bring in the extra run to win the game.  Though they lost, Coach Pisano was happy with his team's performance.  "Its always nice to come out on top, but we were expecting a tough game against a good team," he said.