Cyclones drop semifinal series

A day after Plainedge’s softball team completed a sweep of top-seeded Island Trees to win the Nassau Class A championship, the Red Devils baseball club continued its Cinderella postseason run with a 12-2 victory over No. 3 South Side last Friday in the deciding game of a best-of-three semifinal series at Barasch Field.

The Cyclones led 2-0 after four innings when Plainedge, the last of the tournament’s 16 seeds and coming off a quarterfinal series win over top-seeded Clarke, got its offense in gear and scored three runs in the fifth, six runs in the sixth, and three more in the seventh to advance to face No. 8 Island Trees in the best-of-three finals.

Joe Hauer’s two-run double in the fifth put the Red Devils, who are 6-1 in the playoffs after going 8-9 during the regular season in Conference A-III, ahead for good. South Side (17-8), which won 14 of its last 16 games, scored once in the first and once in the third.

“We played very well for four innings, but we ran out of gas and got beat by a good team,” Cyclones coach Keith Lessuk said. “I’m proud of the run our guys made and the season we had.”

For more than half the game, it appeared as though South Side’s season would continue in the finals. Junior pitcher Lou Matarazzo, an All-County selection making his first start since April, allowed just two hits through four innings and retired the side in order in the second and third. In the first, senior Vinny Tyers made a diving catch in left off Mike Miller to help strand Hauer in scoring position, and junior third baseman Ed Farington recorded a force out at third with the bases loaded to end the fourth.

The offense, which went without a hit against Manez in an 8-0 Game 1 loss on May 23 but busted out in Game 2 for nine runs on eight hits, staked Matarazzo to a 2-0 lead last Friday. Junior David Hawley was the catalyst in the leadoff spot, opening the bottom of the first with a sharp single to right and scoring on junior Eddie Tammaro’s two-out single, and opening the fourth with a single, stealing second, moving to third on a wild pitch and scoring on an infield groundout by Matarazzo.

“Hawley had a big year,” Lessuk said of the All-Conference center fielder who batted a shade under .400.

Plainedge seized the lead and momentum in the fifth, sparked by the bottom of the order. Eighth-place hitter Cody Gallub worked a leadoff walk and Anthony Licata followed with a single. Ralph Caccavale doubled home Gallub to get the Red Devils on the board, then Hauer’s two-run single made it 3-2. The wheels came off for South Side in the sixth when the visitors sent 10 batters to the plate and all but four scored.

The Cyclones forced Game 3 with a 9-4 road win on May 24. Senior Mike Schuerman pitched a gem and got offensive support from Matarazzo (homer, two RBIs) and senior Lou Laupheimer (3-for-4, three RBIs.)