Calm Nighthawks Defeat Lagrange in GHVBL Title Game
A two-run lead in the top of the fourth inning for the Bedford Hills/Katonah Nighthawks seemed like it was about to vanish late Sunday afternoon when Lagrange suddenly loaded the bases with no outs.
“Well, we’re nervous as all heck,” BHK head coach Gonzalo Carozo would admit later about the trepidation he and his staff were feeling before gazing at the faces of their young players. “As a coach, you’re standing there so nervous. But you look at them and they’re the ones that actually calm you down because they don’t show any fear.”
Sure enough, Nighthawks pitcher John Czernyk was soon pitching out of the big jam, aided by a dazzling running catch down the line by right fielder Declan Goldrick for the third out. The Houdini-like escape paved the way for top-seeded BHK’s 8-2 victory over the Lumberjacks in the championship game of the Greater Hudson Valley Baseball League’s 10 B Division at Rogers Park in Danbury.
“Oh, that was tremendous,” said Carozo about the timely defensive gem that preserved the Nighthawks’ lead. “He made a great catch and got us out of the inning. That was huge. That was huge.”
The Nighthawks had grabbed a 1-0 lead against seventh-seeded Lagrange when Goldrick led off the bottom of the second inning with a triple down the line in right field and then scored on an overthrow. They added another run in the third as James Dachik reached on a two-out error, stole second and soon came in on Matt Cambareri’s line single to center field.
But BHK stranded two runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings and another in the third and seemed about to pay a stiff price for it when Czernyk, who had just replaced starter Steven Carozo to begin the fourth, quickly ran into trouble. He yielded a pair of walks sandwiched around an infield hit, and Lagrange appeared ready to jump ahead.
Czernyk struck out Jacob Osborn looking, then induced a ground ball to second. Cambareri’s throw home to catcher Evan Outwater was in time for the second out. But when Connor Peyton sent a soft liner down the right-field line, BHK fans held their breath. Goldrick’s sparkling catch enabled the Nighthawks to escape unscathed.
“We were in a jam, no outs, bases loaded, and the boys just settled,” said coach Carozo. “They never let it get to them, never get nervous. They just execute. It’s amazing. I’ve coached for years — different teams, older teams — and this team is just very cool and collected.”
In the bottom of the inning, any doubt about the outcome all but ended as Lagrange made five errors and the Nighthawks sent 10 batters to the plate, piling up six more runs. Czernyk had an RBI single in the big inning and Dachik followed with a run-scoring double to the gap in right-center field.
A Lagrange threat in the top of the fifth ended when Dachik, the third baseman, snared a soft liner that seemed destined to sail over his head. The Lumberjacks finally got on the scoreboard in the final inning when Peyton’s grounder to third took a bad hop, scoring Hudson Cavallo, and Tyler Forrest hit a fielder’s choice to second that brought in another run.
But Cambareri, the third BHK pitcher, soon retired Luke Lavello for the final out, giving the Nighthawks another championship to match the one they captured last fall.
“You know, we’ve played terrific defense all year,” said Carozo, “and that’s really what wins games for us. We’re not that strong, super-hitting team, but today our bats woke up a little.”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
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