Quite a debut for Cardozo’s Stramara

Peter Douglas had not seen much of Greg Stramara before he made his Cardozo debut last week. The junior, on the jayvee the last two seasons, tried out for the varsity this season and made it mostly because of the Judges’ dearth of pitching. Besides practice, the only live action Douglas saw of Stramara on the mound came against some of his teammates in a recent scrimmage.
“He was pretty effective,” Douglas recalled. “I was very hopeful and confident he could do the job.”
Not only did he prove quite capable of handling such duties, but the Bayside native, in his first varsity appearance, tossed a complete-game four-hitter, striking out five and allowing just one unearned run in Cardozo’s 2-1 win over Aviation last week.
“I was a little nervous,” he admitted, “but I went out there confident, and I just tried to throw strikes.”
Spotting a two-seam fastball with a biting curve, Stramara kept the Flyers (2-2, Queens East-A) off-balance all afternoon, throwing fastballs when he was ahead in the count and breaking pitches when he was behind.
His moment of truth came in the sixth inning. Ony Franco and Jose Rosado led off with back-to-back singles, the first instance when two consecutive Aviation hitters reached base up to that point. Nursing a one-run lead, Douglas never thought about relieving Stramara. “I was confident because he looked poised,” the coach said. “I was ready with the other guys, but every single inning he was doing it. He was great.”
The move paid off. Stramara fanned cleanup hitter Jose Calderon with a backdoor 3-2 curve, got Steven Perez to pop up and Michael Avila flied out to deep right. “I just concentrated on my pitches,” he said. “I just wanted to throw strikes, get out of the inning, and finish the game.”
That he did, retiring the side in order in the seventh. Stramara said he dreamed about this start several times in the past week. In his sleep, he pitched a no-hitter, but this wasn’t bad, either. “I was pumped,” he said.
Finishing in a first-place tie with Richmond Hill in Queens East-A last year, Cardozo (3-0, Queens East-A) was expected to remain near the top again based on their nucleus of heavy hitters, in particular seniors Jamie Liebowitz, Andy Vega and Andrew Ahn. Low-scoring pitching affairs weren’t supposed to be a part of that. But, three league games in, they’ve held the opposition to six runs; staff ace Greg Daniec tossed a two-hitter in the season opener.
“Today’s victory is very sweet,” Douglas said. “We’re going to rely on our defense and get some good pitching.”