sports

Valley Stream Hawks sweep county championship

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The Valley Stream Hawks U-12 baseball team won its second Nassau County Youth Baseball League Championship in two years on Aug. 14 — the culmination of a three-day annual tournament held at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Garden City.

“All three games were extremely close,” said Coach Kyle Manning. “Even the first game was until the end.”

The team’s first game, on Aug. 12, was against the Hicksville Hurricanes. Ethan Ramnarain pitched five innings, and Steve Manzi and Mark Winkler each hit a homerun. The Hawks defeated the Hurricanes 6-1.

In the second round, the Hawks won 2-1 as Manzi went five strong innings on the mound striking out 13 batters. Manning said that the opposing team, Batting 1,000, had the bases loaded in the final inning, and the Hawks narrowly escaped defeat.

“To get out of a bases loaded inning with their best hitters up was pretty amazing,” he said. The game was finally won after a triple from Ramnarain.

Manning said the boys celebrated their second victory with a pool party, which was held before the championship game by design, in case they didn’t win the tournament.

The third and final game against the Wantagh Hawks, Valley Stream defeated the team 14-13 in a back and forth “slugfest” that took nine innings — three innings beyond the standard for their age group. Manning said that homeruns from Manzi, Justin De La Cuevas and Winkler powered the offense. Valley Stream’s closing pitcher was Shaz Ally, and the game winning walk-off RBI came from his twin brother, Reyaz.

Manning said it was a “team win,” and added that if Valley Stream played Wantagh 10 times “they’d probably beat us eight times.”

Manning coaches the Hawks with Mauricio De La Cuevas. “We’re both maniacs,” Manning said. “We’re rambunctious — we both like to argue with the umpires. I actually had to step away from the game at one point.

In 2014, under Coach Bobby Inzerillo, the 12-year-old age group also won the county championship — making this the second tournament win in the past three summer seasons.

“The kids really showed heart, and it was really good for them,” he said. “Last year we were in the same tournament and we were knocked out right away. To come back this year and win was good for them. It was a good vindication for us. They dumped an ice bucket on me head, they got me hardcore.”