Ace Wants More – After loss to Tottenville, Bayside’s Velazquez looks to next year

Anthony Velazquez didn’t care that Bayside was seeded 23rd, that they earned a measure of respect by playing No. 2 Tottenville tough, or that their playoff run, one that included an upset of tenth-seeded Norman Thomas and the school’s first quarterfinal appearance since 1989, could carry over to next spring.
He stepped onto the field with hopes of moving ever closer to a city championship, and he, along with his Commodore teammates, came up short.
“We should’ve beaten them,” he said sternly after Bayside fell to Tottenville, the defending city champs, 3-0, last Tuesday afternoon at Jack Vitale Park in Brooklyn. “We just didn’t bring enough fire today. … We hit their pitcher really hard.”
Nevertheless, the Commodores managed just five hits as many of their drives found Pirate fielders. In the second, Jorge Ynoa and Michael Perrone singled, but Perrone was picked off, and Antonio Koulotouros struck out, ending the threat. Trailing just 1-0 in the fifth, Perrone tripled to dead center, but was thrown out by shortstop Robert Dimperio on Koulotouros’s slow chopper. “I was being aggressive,” he said.
On the play, catcher Robert Kocsis picked the low throw and slapped the tag on Perrone’s lead foot in one motion, all while blocking the plate. “That was certainly one of the Budweiser turning points of the game,” Bayside Manager Pat Torney joked. “I didn’t regret what he did; I thought it was a good decision on his part. Hats off to [Kocsis], he did a great job securing [the ball].”
Velazquez sure did his part on the mound. The fire-balling righty, who earned citywide acclaim for throwing back-to-back perfect games in April, allowed six hits and struck out four in a complete-game effort. Velazquez yielded just Dimperio’s RBI double in the second and a pair of run scoring hits in the fifth, to Cory Sullivan and Francis Tomblin. Still, he wasn’t content with his day. “I felt I should’ve done a lot better.”
Torney, straying from his star pitcher, took positives from his young team’s performance - their entire starting lineup returns aside from Perrone. “We accomplished a lot being the last man standing in Queens,” he said. “We’re right on the cusp. It’s a step in the right direction. This is just one chapter that’s finished for this team.”
Perhaps Velazquez, who plans on discussing the subject when the team meets for the final time, was sending an early message. “Now we know we can play with every team in the city. Hard work, hard work, that’s all I ask. Get bigger, get stronger, get faster. … I’m pushing everybody next year.”
Obviously, he won’t be sugarcoating his expectations for the spring of 2007. “We’re going to the city championship next year,” he predicted.