Bowne Wildcats roar to victory

No matter which team won the PSAL Division “B” Baseball Championship game on Saturday, June 11, the title would be coming back to Queens.
The dramatic marathon game at MCU Park in Coney Island, which featured a rain delay and extra innings, came to a climatic end when John Bowne sophomore John Izquierdo hit a line-drive base hit that drove home first baseman Adrian Blanco, and the Wildcats (18-3) defeated the Martin Van Buren Veebees (17-4) by a score of 2-1.
Wildcats Head Coach Peter Mallo was overcome with joy after leading his team to the school’s first ever “B” Division championship.
“It’s awesome, words can’t even describe the way I feel,” said Mallo.
The game was close and dominated by pitching on both ends, which stifled some of the league’s top batters to a mere three combined runs and nine hits over 10 innings.
“I just had to keep my kids focused, that was the main thing,” he said.
Wildcats starting pitcher, junior Anthony Delarosa, threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings and had seven strikeouts.
Mallo said his pitcher was able to keep his composure because “he’s a smart kid and he knows what bought him here, which is athleticism and his talents.”
In the sixth inning, the Wildcats held a 1-0 lead and sophomore Gabriel Gonell was called in to relieve Delarosa, but the home plate umpire stopped the game for an hour because of lightning and heavy rain.
When the game continued the Veebees were looking for a walk-off win and in the bottom of the seventh Saul Vargas put the game on his shoulders.
The senior, who led the team in batting average (.532) and slugging (.851) in the regular season, got the offense started with a single and steal of second.
Things got worse for the Wildcats as an infield error allowed Eliecer Rodriguez to reach first base followed by a Edgar Lebron walk to load the bases with no outs.
Then the unthinkable happened. The next batter, Veebees’ Captain Elvis Reyes, hit an the infield fly leading to a double play, allowing only Vargas to score.
“I was just confident the whole way through. I was never nervous and I never doubted my team,” said Delarosa.
Gonell said when the bases were loaded he remembered his coach said “just stay focused and try to get the outs, one batter at a time.”
Gonell struck out the next batter and the game continued until Izquierdo’s hit.
Veebees’ head coach Edward Shechtman commended his players after the game saying that they played their best.
“We played the way we’ve been playing all year. We didn’t make too many errors, we got some hits and we scrapped back to get a run in the last inning,” he said.
It was an emotional loss for Martin Van Buren, who made the playoffs eight consecutive times, but never made it past the second round until this season.
Shechtman praised and thanked Vargas for leading the teams’ long run in the playoffs this year.
The pitcher spun six innings only allowing two hits and one earned run, while striking out seven batters. He also had three of their four hits and scored Van Buren’s only run.
“We have a great team and I feel amazed to be here, and I’m happy that we made it,” said Vargas.