Baseball: North Rockland evens season series with rival Suffern in 9-1 win
THIELLS — Baseball is a numbers game, but more importantly, it's one that benefits those with short-term memories. Past games and highlight plays don't quite matter as much in the present.
It's also a sport fueled by rivalries and monster matchups, and while the North Rockland-Suffern rivalry predates everyone that set foot on the field on Thursday afternoon, its importance has never been lost or downplayed.
After taking a tough loss in a pitchers' duel on Wednesday, the Red Raiders got revenge on their home field less than 24 hours later on Thursday. North Rockland evened the season series with a 9-1 victory over Suffern.
"To succeed in baseball, you really got to learn how to forget," North Rockland senior Jacob Fermin said. "Coming into the day, we all forgot about yesterday. It really didn't matter anymore. We just had to beat them up today."
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Fresh off of a loss in a closely-contested battle, the Red Raiders made sure to set the tone early. They snagged a 2-0 lead after the first inning, and didn't relent from there.
They strung together 11 hits as a team throughout the game and scored at least once in five out of the six innings they stepped up to the plate.
"We needed to come back today and play a complete game, and that's basically what we did," North Rockland coach Joe Sottile said. "Danny (Barna) threw strikes for us, our defense just made the plays behind him, and that's really what we were looking for. Offensively, we just took advantage of everything they gave us. ... We know they can swing it, so it was one of those things we had to play the defense behind Danny, and I just thought they were phenomenal today and this was the best defensive game we played all season."
While North Rockland jumped out to an early lead, Suffern responded in the top of the second with its lone run to cut the deficit down to 2-1.
Both teams left seven runners on base apiece throughout the game, but Suffern's attempts at building momentum were thwarted by a stalwart defensive effort by the Red Raiders, who turned three double plays.
"You gotta tip your hat to Coach Sottile and the Red Raiders, that defense played absolutely incredible," Suffern coach Mike Cronin said. "There was about three double plays they turned and what a (diving catch) by their center fielder. You gotta tip your hat, they hit the ball and our hits were at everybody. I thought our quality of bats was good, but we get to see them again, which is the best thing — we get a third shot, at Clover Stadium, it's gonna be a great atmosphere.
"You get a little dejected, but I'm proud of my boys that they still went into every at-bat fighting. We've shown all year that we can come back in some big spots. Today, we didn't, and that's baseball. We'll take it and come back next time."
What it means
The season series is tied at 1-1, which will set the stage for the winner-take-all finale at Clover Stadium, the home of the New York Boulders, where the Crotty-Konkowski Cup will be up for grabs in a wood bat classic. It will also be both teams' Senior Nights.
That game is slated for Monday, May 8 at 7 p.m.
Player of the game
Dan Barna, North Rockland: He pitched a complete game and kept the Mounties off-balance, allowing one run on just four hits. Barna also went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI.
"Just mostly trusted the defense," Barna said of his effort on the mound. "I got eight, nine studs behind me. I pitched for ground balls, pitched for contact and that was the game plan throughout the whole day."
By the numbers
North Rockland (7-5) — Gabe Reyes went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Jacob Fermin was 2-for-3 with a solo home run. Collin Prisco went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Jacob Herrera had a hit and an RBI. Greg Becker had a double and made a diving catch in center field.
Suffern (9-6) — Aaron Shulman and Peter Morrissey each had a double. Thomas Iaquinto and Connor Southwell each had a hit. Iaquinto scored the Mounties' lone run of the game on a passed ball.
They said it
"From the beginning, this is the best high school team I've been on, and we all know that," Barna said. "We're just going out with the mentality that we can run teams over. We know we can beat them, but this (third meeting with Suffern) is going to be one of our hardest matchups all season. Obviously, they're really good, and we lost to them yesterday, but we just proved ourselves right now."
"We have a lot of returning seniors from last year," said Fermin, of his team's turnaround from a 1-3 start to winning six of their last eight. "It was really just see what we had last year, see who came through, do what we're supposed to do, everybody does their job and we get stuff down. Everyone here is friends with each other, most of us hang out outside of school. It's really just come in and play baseball."
Follow Eugene Rapay on Twitter at @erapay5 and on Instagram at @byeugenerapay.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Baseball: North Rockland NY evens season series with rival Suffern
