Sweep puts VSN over .500

After dropping two of three games to Seaford in its first Conference A-IV baseball series of 2014, Valley Stream North took out the broom against Island Trees last week by finding a way to win three tight games.

“I’m happy with where we’re at,” Spartans coach Phil Sanfilippo said. “It’s a very tough league, so there’s still a lot of work to be done if we want to make the playoffs.”

North snatched victory from the jaws of defeat April 3 to complete a sweep of Island Trees. Trailing by two runs in the bottom of the seventh, and with two outs and nobody on base, the Spartans forced extra innings on consecutive singles by Matt Cosme, Glen Tants and Pat Brady. A wild pitch that put Cosme and Tants in scoring position set the stage for Brady’s two-run knock. The Bulldogs took the lead in the top of the eighth, but a two-run rally in the bottom of the inning gave North a 7-6 win. TJ Magno got the decision in relief. Brian Carroll drove in Justin Leone with the tying run and scored the eventual winning run when Brady was plunked by a pitch with then bases loaded.

“It’s easily one of my favorite regular-season wins as a coach,” Sanfilippo said. “It looked like it was going to be their day after we beat them the first two games of the series, but we pulled off some magic.”

A strong outing on the mound by junior Julio Lizardo was the story in the middle game of the series on April 2. He pitched a complete-game four-hitter with one walk and six strikeouts. Cosme knocked in the eventual winning run in the third. “We came out on the better end of a great pitcher’s duel,” Sanfilippo said. “Julio’s got some really good stuff and is throwing with great command.”

Tants beat Island Trees in the series opener April 1, 6-4, and didn’t allow a run over the last four innings. He went the distance and struck out five. North (4-3 in conference play) rallied from four runs down and took the lead for good with a five-run outburst in the top of the fourth. Brady cracked a two-run single and also scored in the inning on Sean Cosme’s go-ahead two-run double. The Spartans added an insurance run in the fifth and held on when Tants recorded the final out with two runners in scoring position.

“It was a wild series,” Sanfilippo said. “They were a hit away from winning the first game and an out away from winning the third game. It’s nice that we found a way to win.”

North’s three-game winning streak ended Monday with a rain-shortened 5-2 defeat to visiting Clarke. Matt Cosme, who is batting .435 through seven games to rank third on the team behind Magno (.529) and Carroll (.462), drove in both of the team’s runs.

The Spartans open a three-game series with Cold Spring Harbor on the road Monday at 10:30 a.m.