GC Baseball - Long Island Champs

It’s never easy to close out a championship game and Garden City can attest to that. Having gone to extra innings in the last two rounds the Trojans were seemingly prepared for the pressure with two walk off winners.

Moving into the top of the seventh inning with a 5-1 lead the pressure almost looked like it was getting to them. Huntington has a lineup that can hit from one through nine and they weren’t going to go away quietly.

Freshman Gabe Beschloss took the mound looking to extend his scoreless innings streak in the playoffs but by his own admission afterwards, he was feeling the heat, both temperature wise and pressure wise. His nerves got the better of him and his command of his fastball was erratic as he loaded the bases with one out on a hit, an infield error and a walk. He appeared to settle down after a visit from manager Dave Izzo as he struck out the next batter. However Huntington was able to push across two runs on walks, both on full counts with the merry-go-round in motion.

With the score at 5-3 and the bases loaded Beschloss was able to regain his composure and got the Huntington batter to hit a soft line drive that centerfielder Peter Halloran got under and put away for the final out.

The celebration was on for Garden City who won their first Long Island Championship since 2000 and were the only Nassau County team to win a Long Island Championship this year.

Garden City had their ace Frank Santeramo on the mound for the championship game, starting with his normal rest between starts. Huntington got off to a quick start as they got a run scoring double after a lead off error put a man on first. But the unearned run was all that Santeramo would give up.

Garden City came right back in the bottom of the first as they loaded the bases on an error, a base hit for senior catcher Joe Infante and a walk. Freshman Jack Fanning then hit a sharp grounder on a 3-2 pitch with the runners in motion that was thrown away for three unearned runs. And GC was on top 3-1 after a first inning that appeared to show championship jitters for both teams.

Santeramo settled down in the second for a quick 1-2-3 inning. And in the bottom of the frame the Trojans were able to tack on another key run on a base hit from junior Gabe Elmokian, a bunt single from junior Peter Halloran and a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior right fielder Joe Frandina for the 4-1 lead.

In the third Santeramo ran into control issues that later could be attributed to an issue with his thumb. After back to back walks to open the inning he came back with a strikeout and got a huge assist from Elmokian as the junior grabbed a hot shot to third, stepped on the bag and fired to first baseman Pat Heber for the double play to end the inning.

After a quiet bottom of the fourth, manager Dave Izzo called on senior Aidan Magnotta to take over on the hill as Santeramo couldn’t get a good feel for the ball. After a lead off strikeout for Magnotta he ran into a bit of wildness and walked the next two hitters. He got a key defensive assist from his team as they caught a runner off second with a nice cut-off throw from junior left fielder Francisco Ingrassia to Elmokian to junior second baseman Joey Wood for the tag as the runner on third held. The inning, and the angst, for the Garden City fans didn’t end there as Magnotta hit the next batter to load the bases. After a quick talk on the mound with coach Ray Chaputian, Magnotta came back to close out the inning with a strike out.

Pumped up after getting out of the top of the inning unscored upon, Garden City added another important tack on run to make it 5-1 on a walk to Halloran, a stolen base, a Frandina infield hit and an RBI single for Infante.

Magnotta was back on the mound for the fifth inning but quickly got into trouble after a walk and a base hit. At this point Izzo made the move to freshman lefty Beschloss to come on to close out the game. And although he walked a batter to load the bases, he was able to get out of the inning by striking out the final two hitters and Garden City held on to their 5-1 lead.

Although Beschloss was masterful in his three innings of relief and got the win, this was truly a team victory for the Trojans. As Coach Izzo said afterwards to the boys, this was the culmination of a lot of hard work up and down the roster, from the seniors to the underclassmen, with everyone picking each other up at one time or another. But it was never more evident than in this victory.