Class AA Baseball Notebook
Carmel’s 4-2 win over reigning Section 1 Class AA Roy C. Ketcham in last Saturday’s Class AA quarterfinal should come as no surprise to anyone that has followed the Rams (18-4) this season or the career of Coach Bob Shilling the last 20 years or so.
When Ryan Mordecai hit the go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the seventh to give the sixth-seeded Rams at 3-2 lead, the burden of proof – contenders or pretenders — would fall to pitcher AJ Martucci in the bottom half.
Mordecai, who had been 0-for-3 with three God-awful whiffs coming into the at-bat, hit one that “might still be flying”, according to Shilling. The manager and Pitching Coach, Ryan Dahl, had issued Martucci explicit orders to work around RCK slugger Seth Lamando with a runner on first and one out in the home half of the inning.
“Martucci turns around and fires one right down the shooter, so I turned to Coach Dahl and said ‘what the hell was that: I thought we were going to pitch around him,’ ” said Shilling, who’s Rams have now won 16 of the last 17. “He went right after Lamdando. Then, he got him to chase a high hard one and then he paints the black to finish him off with an outstanding sequence. If Lamando hits one out and ties the game, I can hear all the second-guessers now, but we got it done and all the kids, including the J.V. kids we brought up, saw just how exciting this game can be.”
It can also be a game of redeeming features and might not have been so exciting if not for Mordecai, who had been having a brutal day.
“I told him, ‘Forget about those at-bats,’ ” Shilling said. “And the ball he hits is still flying.”
Ram Sal Gadero added an RBI single for insurance and Martucci sealed the deal with a complete game, staying in despite a two-hour rain delay. Shilling and Dahl confirmed that Martucci got stronger after the delay due to the lack of humidity and the cool-down.
“He was gassing guys,” Dahl said.
“He’s had an All-Section year,” Shilling added. “He beat RCK, he beat Suffern, he beat John Jay EF and he got Lamando in that spot, beating one of the classiest kids of the last decade; if not for one bad game against Mahopac, the kid has had a great year. He shows guts and nothing bothers him.”
Carmelwill play No.2 John Jay-EF in semifinals on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., going up against former Rams assistant Coach Eric Frink, now an assistant for the Patriots and a teacher atCarmel.
Frink spent a few years with Shilling and Dahl, but despite having a 22-win season a few years back, Shilling may well have done his finest job in 2012.
“Truthfully,” Shilling said after the RCK win, “I was hoping to be just over.500 this season with the team we returned. It took us a couple of weeks to get it where we wanted. The pitching has been there and we found a great shortstop in Steve Hill (senior), one of the best I’ve ever had, and we brought these seniors in for a visit and we told them ‘We’ve got to shore this thing up and get going’ and we haven’t looked back. It’s been a fun, rewarding bunch to work with.”
To be among the Class AA Final 4 with a chance to play to Dutchess Stadium in their first championship since repeating in 1990 is some kind of reward alright.Carmel, pretty amazingly, has now been to the Final 4 three times since 2007. Draw your own conclusion about this program, but it’s the pride ofPutnamCountybaseball; that’s for sure…
The Carmel-Jay winner would get a look at the No.4 Fox Lane-No.9 Arlington winner on Wednesday at Dutchess Stadium (7:00 p.m.). Ram RHP Easton Obojkovitz would get the championship nod with all hands on deck behind him, just as they will be ready to relieve four-year veteran Brett Viola on Tuesday as he and his mates look to knock offEast Fishkillfor the second time in 11 days…
Was anyone really shocked that No.10 Mahopac was one-hit in a 7-0 opening-round loss to No.7 Suffern? Indian 3B Mike Komendowski broke up the no-no bid by Mountie ace Dom Kulbaba.
“Kulbaba was one of the top pitchers we had faced all year and out-matched our lineup,” Mahopac captain Elliot Haight said. “He had a hard fastball and a very good curveball. Our team this year completed two of our three goals this season. We won the league, won the Tantalos Tournament but fell short on the section title. Overall, our team had a successful season and I’m very happy on what we have accomplished this year.”
The light-hitting Indians (14-6-1), something that has plagued the program more than a decade now, have some help on the way at the lower levels whereby some kids are stinging the ball, which surely Coach Chris Miller is thrilled to hear about…
Yorktown’s Brian “Red” Redahan went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI for the No. 12 Huskers in a 4-3 loss to No.5 New Rochelle, who won the game in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the seventh and ending Yorktown’s season at 11-10, which is something Coach Kennedy would have signed up for at the start of the season.
Ray has 33 years experience covering and photographing local sports in Westchester and Putnam counties, including everything from Little League/Travel Baseball to varsity high school prep sports and collegiate coverage. He has been a sports editor at Examiner Media since its inception in 2007.
Visit Ray’s author bio page for more details. Also read Ray’s archived work here and his Direct Rays column here.
