By Mitch Abramson
It was a game of attrition, not a thing of beauty. Errors were made and lapses in judgment were everywhere, but when the sixth inning rolled around of the PSAL ‘B’ baseball championship game between Townsend Harris and Beach Channel, the score was tied at 5 and the game demanded a hero.
Fittingly, Townsend Harris’ Michael Schwartz started the inning off by getting hit by a pitch. John Tatti reached first on an infield single, but the play didn’t end there. In a sequence that would repeat itself all too often for both teams, Beach Channel tried to make something out of nothing — and it backfired.
Schwartz made a break for third on Tatti’s hit but was thrown out by Benjamin Deleon at shortstop. The third basemen tried to nail Tatti as he headed to second, but the throw ended up in right field, and Tatti scampered to third. Up stepped Michael Badala in the nine-spot, who in one fell swoop ended the nonsense, slapping a base hit to right and scoring Tatti for what would become the go-ahead run to win the game 6-5 at Shea Stadium Friday.
“I liked the pitch and I was just trying to make contact,” said Badala, a junior. “After the first day of practice, I knew we had a good team, but I still can’t believe that we made it this far. I was surprised because this team wasn’t always the greatest.”
Fourth seeded Townsend Harris (20-1), first-round losers a year ago, committed seven errors, surprising for a team with six seniors in the starting line-up. After the top of the fourth, when the Hawks committed an error that cost them the lead, first-year coach, Raymond Adamkiewicz could sense that his players were losing their poise a little.
“I was just trying to calm them down a little bit,” he said. “It was pretty stressful playing at Shea, and I told them to just shake it off and just move on.”
No. 18 Beach Channel (20-9) had been dodging the odds all season, knocking off higher seeds with only three senior starters in the post-season and playing well above their heads.
It was a matter of time until they came back down to earth, and it started in the bottom of the fourth when Schwartz laid down a bunt that Beach Channel freshman pitcher Daniel Rodriguez fielded and overthrew to first, plating Christopher Fuchs, who reached base when he was hit by a pitch to tie the game at 4.
“We’re a very unpredictable team; sometimes we can play with everybody and some days we can’t beat people,” said Dolphins’ coach Thomas Kazalski. “Sometimes it’s our pitching and sometimes it’s our fielding [that hurts us].”
A wild pitch brought home a runner for what was thought to be the go-ahead run for Townsend Harris, but on appeal by Kazalski, it was ruled that the runner had not touched home and the run did not count.
In the fifth, Townsend Harris took the lead for real on a sacrifice fly by Nikolas Kaloudis to deep center that scored Jesse Franco to go up 5-4.
The Hawks were not out of the woods just yet as Beach Channel tied the game in the sixth on a throwing error and led off the seventh with a double by Rubi Ramos.
Adamkiewicz considered removing his starting pitcher Christopher Guillou, who up to that point had thrown 110 pitches.
“I wanted to stay in. I guaranteed him the win,” said the junior, who scattered three hits, walked nine batters and gave up no earned runs.
With Ramos leading off second, Gregory Perdriel rocketed a shot to Kaloudis, who stepped on second to end the game and raised his fist in celebration.
Reach reporter Mitch Abramson at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300 Ext. 130.
