Call it a rough week for Queens baseball: Two rounds into the PSAL ‘A’ playoffs, and all seven of the borough’s teams have been eliminated.
Bayside, Benjamin Cardozo, Francis Lewis, John Adams, Long Island City, Newtown and William C. Bryant all failed to survive their games on May 20 and 22, even though at least one of them, Newtown, was expected to reach the quarterfinals and plant itself among the city’s top eight. The same goes for seventh-seeded Grand Street Campus, which hails from Brooklyn but which won the Queens ‘A’ West division with a 15-1 record.
Newtown, ranked eighth, was one of three Queens teams to make the second round, accompanied by 12th-ranked Francis Lewis and 20th-ranked Cardozo. The Pioneers, however, succumbed to the stifling arm of McKee/Staten Island Tech’s Matt Abramowitz, who gave up only three hits and one earned run in seven innings.
McKee’s 3-1 victory was not entirely shocking, as the Seagulls were ranked 9th and finished second only to Staten Island juggernaut Tottenville. But the Pioneers probably hoped for a better showing from starting pitcher Franklyn Ramirez, who had emerged this season from “compet[ing] for a spot in our rotation” (in his head coach’s words) to mowing down opposing hitters with a 6-0 record and a 0.27 earned run average. The damage was done in the fifth and sixth innings, and an RBI triple by Newtown centerfielder Christopher Vasquez was too little, too late in the bottom of the sixth.
Francis Lewis, champion of the highly competitive Queens ‘A’ East division, lost to fifth-ranked Telecomm of Brooklyn in heartbreaking fashion. The Patriots were up 1-0 in the final inning, and Jeremy Rodriguez, the first-time starter who played hero during the team’s playoff push, was nearing a shutout. All that changed in the bottom of the seventh, when Telecomm loaded the bases and pushed across two runs off the bat of shortstop Elddy Fernandez. He singled between shortstop and third base, delivering the Yellow Jackets their 2-1 win.
Finally, Benjamin Cardozo overcame its low ranking to upset 13th-ranked Beacon in the first round, with George Theodoropoulos throwing a one-hitter, and centerfielder Andrew Nunez knocking in the winning run in the top of the seventh. The Judges could not ride the momentum to a win over fourth-ranked John F. Kennedy, however. They gave up 11 runs in the first four innings en route to a 12-4 loss.
