Iona Prep 3 - Kennedy 2, Mamaroneck 3 - North Rockland 2: Game Recaps

April 7, 2015

Dan Cevette
Director, New York

Vincent Z. Mercogliano
Lower Hudson Valley Scout
Lo-Hud Sports

Iona Prep 3 - Kennedy 2

Sal Villano hit a fly ball that was dropped in center field to allow Sam Roque the winning run in Iona Prep’s walk-off 3-2 win over Kennedy in 11 innings on Monday, but the star of the game was junior right-hander Matt Mancino. He entered the game in the sixth inning with Iona (2-0) trailing 2-0, but tossed six scoreless innings in relief to earn the win. He allowed two hits and no walks while striking out five.

Mancino’s biggest outs came in the eighth after Nick Gastin’s one-out double with Kennedy’s two best hitters coming up in Alex Volpi and Gavin Garay. After getting Volpi to pop out to the catcher, he struck out Garay to end the inning. Mancino replaced senior right-hander Brad Case, who allowed two runs in the first thanks to a walk, a hit batsman and an error. Case had trouble getting his breaking ball over, but held Kennedy scoreless in his final four innings of work while relying mostly on his mid-80s fastball. Kennedy (0-1) started sophomore right-hander Trent Valentine, who walked five over 4 2/3 innings but also struck out seven.

Valentine was pulled in favor of Will Rossiter with two on and two outs in the fifth, with an error on Chris Dutra’s groundball up the middle allowing two runs to score and tie the game at 2-2. Iona nearly walked off in the seventh after Andrew Watson led off with a double and advanced to third, but he was thrown out at home on a fielder’s choice. Daniel Carollo led off the 11th with an opposite-field double to set up Iona’s winning run, as the two teams combined for less hits (9) than innings played.

Mamaroneck 3 - North Rockland 2

After tossing a two-hitter on 63 pitches on Thursday, Mamaroneck left-hander Kumar Nambiar threw another complete game in a 3-2 win at North Rockland on Monday. The Yale-bound senior struck out seven on 103 pitches, throwing 72 for strikes. Nambiar relied on his curveball and changeup to keep the Red Raiders off balance, but they still managed 10 hits and two walks, including a bases loaded walk to Christian Nicolosi to drive in North Rockland’s first run in the fifth.

Ben Steinberger gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the second when he laced a two-run single down the left field line, which was one of just five hits for Mamaroneck (3-1). Andy Karlan was the only Tiger with multiple hits, going 2 for 3 with a long triple that traveled about 400 feet on the fenceless North Rockland (0-1) field. North Rockland starter Chris Dodrill (4 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 4 K, 73 pitches, 43 strikes) labored a bit before being pulled in favor of fellow left-hander Dan Wirchansky (3 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 54 pitches, 38 strikes).

In the bottom of the fourth, North Rockland’s Billy Rotella led off with a double and advanced to third on a groundout. When Wirchansky struck out on a pitch in the dirt, Rotella to broke for home and appeared to have the throw beat, but the umpire ruled that he never touched the plate. Nambiar’s RBI groundout in the sixth made it 3-1, and then Rotella’s RBI single cut the deficit to 3-2 in the seventh before Nambiar ended the game by inducing a fielder’s choice.