Headless Horsemen Give League Champion Pearl River a Scare

The Sleepy Hollow Horsemen lost to the Pearl River Pirates 5-2 after leading 2-0 at the top of the second.

Pearl River slowly crept back, even thought they still trailed 2-1 at the end of four innings in the first round of Class A Sectionals.

Things changed in the bottom of the fifth however as the Pirates' bats started rolling for a 2-2 tie. It wouldn't be long before the Pirates took a 3-2 lead as the Horsemens' bats went silent the rest of the day to fall behind 5-2 at the end of six.

Sleepy Hollow Head Coach Ray Farrell was proud of his team's effort against the No.4 seed especially with their lead in the second. Sleepy went into the game No.13 seed.

Farrell noted that his young team is learning and that many players are "young and inexperienced", but Sleepy Hollow still managed to give the Pirates a run for their money.

"We had 'em a little bit nervous,"  he said. 

The Horsemen look to take full control of the league and win the league championship next season.

"Next year is our year," Farrell told his team in the final post-game talk for 2010, stating that if the Horsemen want to make any noise, next year is the time to do it.

The Horsemen went into yesterday's game after winning their regular season finale over Ardsley, 9-8, and had hoped to carry that energy into yesterday's matchup.

"We wanted to peak at the right time," Farrell said. "We're young. All we wanted to do was play good baseball."

Sleepy Hollow did just that despite the loss and should have no problems making a strong showing in sectionals next year.

In yesterday's game Dan Kaplan stuck out seven batters and walked five in five and a third innings pitched. Armondo Cabrera pitched two and a third innings. Dionel Infante had a hit and an RBI.

The Pirates play today against No. 5 seed Pelham.