Baseball: Sleepy Hollow beats Shrub Oak 4-1

The Sleepy Hollow Mustangs and the Shrub Oak Lou entered their 16-and-under Westchester Putnam Baseball Association contest from completely different places.

The Mustangs came into the game 17-5 and in fourth place in the 17-team league while Shrub Oak was 5-17. Sleepy Hollow had won the first two meetings between the two squads 13-0 and 16-2.

In light of those numbers, this game wasn't expected to be much of a contest but it turned out to be one of the more well played games of the year. Sleepy Hollow's Dionel Infante and Shrub Oak's Eric Basso both pitched well with a two-run third inning propelling the Mustangs to a hard fought 4-1 victory.

"It was a question of us breaking through," Sleepy Hollow coach Steve Brabazon said. "We had struggled the first couple of innings. We weren't hitting the ball, their pitcher was mixing up his pitches pretty well. In the third, we just started connecting."

Sleepy Hollow jumped on the board first in the Wednesday evening game at Lakeland High School. Ronnie Rodriguez hit a one-out double in the opening inning, stole third and scored on an error.

Shrub Oak answered with a run of its own in its half of the second. Al Mancusi walked, was balked to second and scored on a double to center field by Chris Gaynor.

"Chris is pretty solid player," Shrub Oak coach Lou Pombo said. "He's got pop in his bat. I usually have him in the fourth or fifth spot. I really have no complaints about him."

Brabazon had no complaints about the way his squad responded by taking a 3-1 lead with two runs in the third inning. The Mustangs put runners on first and second thanks to a lead-off single from Jason Martinez and a walk by Chris Lopez.

A Gio Nunez base hit would drive in Martinez and a groundout to first by Inmer Rosado knocked in Lopez.

Lopez showed how important speed is in the fifth inning when he flew around the bases after hitting a one-out triple to left-center field. Lopez came home on a sacrifice fly to right by Rodriguez that put the Mustangs in front 4-1.

"Speed like Chris has is extremely disruptive to the opposing team," Brabazon said. "When you are dealing with that much speed and we have four or five guys on this team that can fly, it makes a big difference. We are aggressive running the base paths and it really changes the ballgame for us."

Attempting to change the game for Shrub Oak was Basso, a 14-year-old, whose performance on the mound impressed his coach.

"The last two games Eric has pitched he has been very consistent," Pombo said. "He threw strikes over the plate and that seems to be one of our biggest problems all season. This is probably the best game he has pitched. It's his first complete game of the season. He had command of his pitches. He threw a lot of off-speed, a lot of fastballs when he needed them. He got a lot of strikeouts. He pitched his heart out."

Basso had six strikeouts while Infante, who also threw a complete game, struck out nine.

"Not only did Dionel have great control, he had great location," Brabazon said. "He worked his off-speed pitches effectively. It's the best I have seen him pitch all year, by far."

As for Shrub Oak, Pombo was pleased with what he saw from his team that will finish its season at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6 at Lakeland against Somers.

"Today our errors were down tremendously," Pombo said. "Usually our biggest problem is that we lose by the mercy rule due to errors. I saw more effort today than I have seen in awhile."

Sleepy Hollow, who is fighting for playoff seeding, will end its regular season at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 7 against visiting Yonkers at Losee Park.

 "Yonkers is one of the top three teams in the league," Brabazon said. "We played them tough, lost at their place 4-3 in nine innings. It was a very exciting game, probably the best played I have ever seen defensively, offensively and pitching wise."