Cyclones go down swinging

Watching Division and Island Trees advance to the Nassau Class A baseball best-of-three championship series was tough on South Side, which gave both finalists a run for their money in the postseason.

“It’s frustrating because we felt we were better than both of those teams,” Cyclones coach Keith Lessuk said. “It’s nice to say we competed with the best in the county and lost all close games. We didn’t play poorly, but we also didn’t bring our best.”

Sixth-seeded South Side, which captured the Conference A-II title and earned double-elimination status for the playoff tournament, lost three postseason games by a total of four runs. The Cyclones (13-6) were eliminated in the quarterfinal round by conference rival Division, which took Game 1 of the series 4-2 and Game 2 by a 1-0 score.

“We just didn’t get hits in key situations,” Lessuk said. “That’s usually the difference between winning a one-run game and losing a one-run game. The pitching we faced had a lot to do with it.”

South Side was no-hit by Division’s Mike Rostenberg in its season-ending defeat. Rostenberg struck out seven and followed a strong outing by Sean Abbate in the series opener. Senior Evan Singer and junior Christian Colletti were the hard-luck losing pitchers, and Lessuk said there wasn’t much more they could’ve done. “Evan and Christian had us in position to win both games,” Lessuk explained.

The playoffs began with a 4-3 loss at No. 3 Island Trees in a game the Cyclones led by two runs with two innings to go thanks to a pair of homers from sophomore third baseman Louis Matarazzo. The Bulldogs won it in their final at-bat in odd fashion when Ryan McDonald raced home from second base on an infield grounder that went for a fielder’s choice.

Facing elimination two days later, South Side got the bats going against No. 10 Bethpage and stayed alive with an 11-9 home victory. Singer picked up his fourth win of the year on the mound and got offensive support from senior outfielder James Howard, who drove in four runs on three hits, and senior catcher Matt Sollin, who went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI.

“The expectation was that we could win,” Lessuk said. “Beating out Division for the conference title was a great accomplishment. Our pitchers did a good job every day and we really hit. I thought we’d have to manufacture runs this season, but we didn’t need to play small ball.”

Howard (.410 batting average, 31 RBI, 25 runs) and Matarazzo (.410 avg., four homers, 26 RBI) earned All-County honors, while Sollin (.377 avg., three homers, 28 runs), Colletti (2.55 ERA, 55 strikeouts) and senior Andrew Talbot (.388 avg., 18 RBI) were chosen All-Conference. Sollin also drew 23 walks, many of which came after a torrid start.

“Pitchers stopped challenging Matt,” Lessuk said of Sollin. “He was red hot. But most of the time he walked, either Howard or Matarazzo drove him in.”