A season after snapping the school’s 34-year drought without a division title, Holy Cross is threatening to repeat as Brooklyn/Queens champions. The Knights have won all six of their league games to start the year, including victories over Brooklyn dynamo Xaverian and borough rival Molloy.
“I’m not necessarily surprised,” Manager Doug Manfredonia said. “We’ve had some tight games, and we’ve kind of played the way we should have. We could have lost a couple, but we have done everything I have expected. … I think that we have probably made no mistakes to blow a game for us, and no lazy pitch that cost us a game. We’ve just kind of held our own.”
Holy Cross has done it with a different player every day. Four different starting pitchers - Roger Pfeffer, Anthony Mongelli, Tom Matera, and Jon Costa - have each earned a win, and Costa has compiled three saves.
Offensively, the usual stalwarts have contributed including seniors such as the Leisenheimer brothers, Justin and Ian, and speedy left fielder Travis Swiatocha, but up and down the lineup, Manfredonia has received consistent production. In the victory over Xaverian, No. 9 hitter Andy Romero had three hits to win the game, and more recently, catcher John McManus keyed the attack against Bishop Ford with three hits.
“It’s really not been two or three guys,” Manfredonia said. “It’s been the whole lineup.”
In Public School action, Cardozo, who has held at least a share of their division title in all but one season over the last two decades, is on pace for another crown this spring at 9-0 in league play. Last week, they came from behind to beat Lane, 9-7. First baseman Andrew Parraga homered and drove in four runs and Andrew Ahn and Adam Torres each scored twice. Matthew Lynn, who got the victory in relief, and Greg Daniec each have three wins and Greg Stramara has two. Offensively, second baseman Jamie Leibowitz leads the division with 20 runs batted in.
Martin Van Buren sits atop Queens South-B thanks in large part to their hot-hitting infielders Joseph Zamora and Eric Reyes, third and fourth in the city in hits, respectively. Reyes, a senior pitcher/third baseman is batting .808 with four home runs, 30 RBI, 21 hits and 19 runs. Zamora, a junior, has his own impressive numbers - a .629 batting average with 21 runs scored, 22 hits and 13 runs batted in.
