South Side falls to Island Trees

Second-seeded South Side nearly completed an epic comeback in its final turn at-bat in Game 3 of its Nassau Class A baseball quarterfinal playoff series against No. 15 Island Trees at Barasch Field last Saturday.

The Cyclones trailed by five entering the bottom of the seventh inning but managed to bring the potential winning run to the plate before Bulldogs pitcher Louis Belleau got a popout back to the mound for the last out in an 8-6 victory. Belleau extended the series to a third game the previous day with a walk-off RBI single in the ninth for an 8-7 win.

“We had a great year, but we had some pitching issues this week,” South Side coach Thomas Smith said. “We weren’t ready to go home. Our journey ended earlier than we expected.”

The Cyclones, who captured the Conference A-II title and finished 17-5 overall, lost for the first time this spring with senior ace Ed Farington towing the rubber. Coming off a tremendous outing in a 9-4 victory over seventh-seeded Division in the playoff opener on May 13, Farington allowed 11 hits, walked one and struck out five. “Hats off to Island Trees,” Smith said. “They were the only team all year that was able to take down Eddie. He was 6-0 coming in.”

Trailing by two runs in the bottom of the third, South Side produced three runs on four hits to take a 3-2 lead. Chris Figueroa, David Hawley and Louis Matarazzo all singled and scored, and Ben Hoefer also roped a single during the rally. Matarazzo drove home Figueroa, Eddie Tammaro knocked in Hawley, and Matarazzo scored on a head-first slide on Farington’s fielder’s choice grounder.

The Bulldogs responded with three runs in the fourth, capped by leadoff hitter Louis Mele’s two-run single, and led 5-3 through five. In the top of the sixth, they tacked on two runs thanks to a couple of errors and a questionable call at third base. Their lead was 8-3 in the seventh after Tucker Hahn’s RBI-double off the fence in left.

Belleau got the leadoff batter in the bottom of the seventh before running into serious trouble. South Side smacked five hits in its final at-bat, including a run-scoring double by Hoefer and a two-run single with two outs by Jeremy Ramirez. Shawn Klier, who followed Ramirez’s single with one of his own, represented the tying run when Belleau found a way to finish the job. “He attacked the strike zone most of the game and forced our guys into hitting his pitch,” Smith said of Belleau. “We finally got to him in the seventh, but we needed one more big hit.”

The Cyclones won Game 1 at Barasch, 8-3, on May 15 behind two RBIs apiece from Tammaro and Farington, a Matarazzo homer, and two scoreless innings of relief from winning pitcher Vincent Gallub. Matarazzo also went deep in Game 2, while Harrison Park had a clutch two-run double in the top of the seventh to force extra innings.