With the Queens ‘A’ East baseball division hanging in the balance on May 11, Francis Lewis starting pitcher Jeremy Rodriguez threw seven innings and 12 strikeouts, conceding three hits and one earned run. A 3-1 victor, he could barely depart from the pitcher’s mound before finding himself surrounded by adulating teammates.
Not bad for a high school junior’s first career start.
Rodriguez, who had entered from the bullpen in previous contests, showed off considerable command against Benjamin Cardozo, changing speeds effectively and straying from the strike zone only in limited quantities. He out dueled Matthew Lynn, whose Judges emerge from Monday’s game with one more loss than the 11-3 Patriots and appear constrained to a near-miss second place as the regular season winds down. (Division rival Bayside, which started the season strong, has since slipped to 6-5.)
“Jeremy punched the clock and decided to go to work,” said Francis Lewis head coach Ian Millman. “He was mixing it up and pounding the zone.”
Lynn did not pitch much worse than Rodriguez, conceding only five hits. But whereas Cardozo stranded baserunners, Lewis was lucky enough to cluster its hits in the bottom of the fourth inning. With the game tied at one, sophomore third baseman Ozzie Robles drove in sophomore first baseman Chris Rivera with a single to right-centerfield, and sophomore DH Jesse Pau crossed home after the throw to the plate got away. Pau had driven in junior shortstop David Torres for the Patriots’ first run.
“Not quite the offensive explosion you dream about,” quipped Millman. But it was enough for Rodriguez, who called his team’s victory “the biggest one of the season” and attributed his success to the confidence that resulted from the Patriots’ fourth-inning outburst.
“After we scored the three runs, I was just relaxed,” he said.
Lewis’ 11-3 record as of Tuesday morning is the best in the league but not the best in Queens, which features four dominant teams among its two other top divisions. In the Queens ‘A’ Midwest, Newtown and John Adams are deadlocked at 11-2, primed for a potentially decisive matchup on May 13. In the Queens ‘A’ West, Grand Street Campus and William C. Bryant entered the week with only one loss each and a two-game series awaiting them.
Lewis and Cardozo share a similar end-of-season format. They play again on Wednesday, May 13, after press time. If the Patriots win, the division is theirs.
