Sleepy Hollow Loses 23-5 to Hastings in Baseball

Sleepy Hollow suffered a 23-5 loss to powerful Hastings yesterday. One look at the score and you may think that nothing was gained by the Horsemen in their defeat.

Of course, if you talk to Sleepy's leadoff hitter, Armando Cabrera, you instantly realize how wrong that thinking is.

"I learned that we have a great squad," Cabrera said. "We have a good team that sticks together through adversity. That's what I admire most about this team, no matter what we stick together as one unit and come through no matter how bad the loss is."

One reason why the Headless Horsemen were able to stick together and continued to play with enthusiasm is because of the love they have for the game of baseball.

"This team loves baseball more than any team I have known," Cabrera said. "It has the heart and passion to play this sport. I couldn't be on a better team than this team."

Sleepy Hollow (4-5) felt the wrath of Hastings early as the visitors scored 10 runs in the top of the first inning. Sleepy Hollow Head Coach Ray Farrell gathered his team before its turn at bat, explaining to them the importance of playing as hard as it could in an adverse situation.

Sleepy Hollow responded when Cabrera, who was 2-for-4 with an RBI, led off with a single and eventually scored on a base hit by Aydan Ellman in the bottom of the inning.

Cabrera, who leads the team with a batting average just above .400 and plays a strong center field, said that the key to his success at the plate was just being relaxed.

"I was taking my usual approach and took it the other way if I had too, not trying to do too much, just get on base," Cabrera said.

Farrell said even though Cabrera is just a sophomore, he pointed out that this is his second year on the varsity and that he is one of the team leaders.

"I told Armando that officially he is not a captain but in reality he is," Farrell said. "The guys look to him for leadership. I need him to keep his head high in tough games like this because the guys are going to look to him."

Cabrera's leadership will be needed as Sleepy Hollow makes its climb back up to respectability.

"We are a program that's on the rise but we're still young and inexperienced," Farrell said. "I told the players before the season that there would be three or four games likes this just because of the way our team is built. If we are not on our game, this is going to happen to us. When games like this get out of hand, we have to use it to our advantage, we have to use it as a practice session, we have to get good at bats, we have to work on our fielding, we have to get better in games like this. We can't hang our heads."

Sleepy Hollow didn't hang its head, scoring four more runs after the opening inning. Scoring those runs were Juan Regalado, Cabrera and Chris Lopez, who scored twice.

Besides scoring twice, Lopez also went 2 for 3 with two doubles. Ronnie Rodriguez and John Pardo also had a base hit apiece for Sleepy Hollow.

"Our expectations are to make sectionals," Cabrera said. "We are a pretty good team. We can make .500. We are also looking to hit the ball more, that's what we are doing better than last year. We are hitting it often and hard."