Sleepy Hollow Rallies to Defeat Shrub Oak

Sleepy Hollow's 14-and-under Westchester Putnam Baseball Association squad may not play the prettiest games – but the bottom line is through eight contests, the Legends have a winning record with a 4-3-1 mark.

That mark includes a come-from-behind 11-5 triumph against the Shrub Oak (Tony) Storm Thursday evening at Sleepy Hollow High School.

"We have a good corp of players," Sleepy Hollow winning pitcher Edwin Lebron said. "We didn't give up even though we were down at the beginning of the game. We just never give up."

Shrub Oak jumped out to a 4-0 lead, garnering two runs in both the first and third innings each. Jake Sangalli and Scott Tornatore started the game for the Storm with back to back singles and eventually scored on a base hit by Brandon Loran and a run-producing walk from Alex Cohen.

Sean Sudlow started the Storm's rally in the third inning with a single and was knocked in by a triple from Loran. A ground-out to second by Frank Brescia drove in Loran and put the Storm up 4-0.

"They were hitting with confidence," Shrub Oak coach Tony Loran said. "They just saw the ball and hit it where nobody was at. Then in later innings they started to hit it where everybody was at. It's just the bounce of the ball."

Sleepy Hollow started hitting in the bottom of the third when Joey Good Jr. began a two-out rally with a single. He advanced to second on a double by Nick Arduino and came home when Lebron drove him in with a single.

The Legends trimmed Shrub Oak's lead in the fourth to one, 4-3, when Adam Tracey and Mike Martello scored.

Sleepy Hollow took the lead in the fifth with four runs. Arduino led off with a walk and stole second base before scoring on a single by Lebron, who was 3 for 4 with 4 RBIs. Lebron scored on an error during Nick Gasparre's at bat with Gasparre scoring on a triple by Tracey.

Tracey would score to make the game 7-4 in favor of the Legends when Luke Colley grounded out to first.

Shrub Oak (3-7) got to within two of the hosts in the sixth on an RBI single by Paul Hurowitz, driving in Sam Grumet, who also singled.

However, center fielder Ray Rodriguez threw a strike to home that was caught by Colley, just in time to throw out a hustling Cohen. That was the second out of the inning and it just stopped the Storm's momentum.

"The throw home by Ray was a moment changer, it was a play that really got the team rallied up," Sleepy Hollow coach Joey Good Sr. said. "Ray doesn't usually make those kind of throws. For that throw to come out of that little body with Ray being on the smaller side, it really rallied us up."

On the other side, Loran lamented what might have been.

"We really needed to get more than one run out of that inning," Tony Loran said. "We played a good game but their lineup just was hitting well. It's usually one inning that kills. But again, I thought overall we played well."

Sleepy Hollow sealed the game with four insurance runs in its half of the sixth, two of them coming home on a double by Lebron and the other two scoring on a triple by Tracey.

 "The count played a big part, it was 2-1 so I knew he had to throw it in there," Lebron said. "I was waiting on his fastball and I got it."