Sports
Port Baseball Eliminated From Post-season Contention By East Meadow
After a season filled with losing, the Port baseball team is eliminated from a spot in the playoffs.
On a cloudy Monday afternoon at , the baseball team circled around the mound after a 6-0 loss to East Meadow.
The season was over, postseason play would not be in the team's future.
Sitting with a 3-9 conference record entering the game, senior Timmy Costello gave up six runs in the first two innings. Costello gave up only four hits from the third inning on, but the damage done early was too much for the Vikings offense.
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In the seventh, senior Jacob Lanzkowsky relieved Costello and pitched a scoreless final inning.
The starting lineup for the Vikings consisted of seven seniors. One of them was shortstop Aaron Feinberg, who had been brought up playing in PYA and on travel teams since he was in elementary school.
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"It kills most of us to lose in a game like this," said Feinberg. "Couple of bad pitches, couple missed spots. Definitely going to hurt."
Five seniors on the Vikings – Wayne Baker, Paul Mills, A.J. Friedman, Jacob Lanzkowsky, and Timmy Costello – will play at the collegiate level. Check back with Patch for more on which college these students will attend.
The only juniors to start, Nick Duarte and Zach Baer, combined to get three hits in five at-bats.
Hero: Matt Castaneda pitched seven innings of shutout ball, striking out eight and dominating the strike zone. The East Meadow starting pitcher also went 2-4 from the plate a scored a run.
"Mainly, as a pitcher, it's big to get the first strike so you can work with your cutter and other breaking stuff," Castaneda said after the game.
Bottom Line: For the nine seniors on the Vikings, this game represented the last chance the team had to play in the postseason. East Meadow's playoff hopes, meanwhile, remain alive.
Quotable: "The first inning, I didn't get off to a good start," Costello said. "The second inning I couldn't throw a strike and not being able to throw a strike is half the game. If you can't do that, you can't do anything."
Who's Next: Tomorrow and Wednesday, Port is scheduled to finish off their season away and home, respectively (subject to weather). Although the team will play their games, the season is, for the most part over.
