When Briarcliff (5-6) took a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning in its contest at Peekskill Stadium against host Croton-Harmon (5-8), it looked like the Bears were going to get a much needed victory.
However, in a game that mirrors the Bears’ season, Croton-Harmon rallied for two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to earn a 5-4 victory on Friday night.
“This pretty much sums up how we have been playing this year,” Briarcliff Coach John Consorti said.
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Consorti said the problem so far this season is that the Bears have had trouble maintaining consistent play.
“We have flashes of excellent play then we have flashes where we have mental lapses,” Consorti said. “The lack of consistency hurts you in baseball. I could use the excuse that we are a young team but there really is no excuse for not being mentally prepared to play.”
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Briarcliff was able to score the first run of the game in the opening inning after a botched pick-off attempt allowed Brendan Weinstein to score from third, with Paul Henshaw going from first to second.
The play looked like it may have been a planned play but Consorti admitted that wasn’t the case.
“That wasn’t a called play,” Consorti said. “Fortunately for us, it turned into a run but there was no called play there.”
After Croton-Harmon had taken a 3-1 lead with a single run in the first and two runs in the third, Henshaw scored in the fourth to cut the Tigers’ lead in half. He stole second and third bases before coming home on a double to right field by Lou Carrafiello, who went 2 for 3 with two RBI.
Briarcliff then tied the game in the fifth inning when Vinny Giacovas delivered a one-out single, stole second, advanced to third on wild pitch before scoring on a base hit by Weinstein.
The Bears took the lead in the sixth inning when Henshaw once again displayed his ability to get on base with a key lead-off walk.
“He just battles and makes adjustments during at-bats,” Consorti said of Henshaw. “Some guys have that capability and others don’t. He does. He seems to get on base a lot.”
Henshaw scored the go-ahead run on a two-out infield single by a hustling Carrafiello.
“It was going to be a tough play for any shortstop, the ball was hit in the hole,” Consorti said. “Lou though to his credit hustled it out, we needed the run and he gave us a great effort on that.”
Croton-Harmon though answered to take the lead when Brian Soares connected on what turned out to be the game-winning hit with a two-run single to right field in the bottom of the sixth.
“Give their guys their credit, they hit the ball when they needed to, we really didn’t get a hit when we needed to,” Consorti said. “Credit to their pitcher (Greg Carroll), he pitched a very good game. Credit to the hitter (Soares) who got the key hit when he needed to. They took advantage of opportunities when they had them.”
Battling on the mound for the Bears was pitcher Spencer Kulman, who struck out nine Tigers.
“He competes all the time, we just really didn’t help him offensively,” Consorti said. “He has to work on being more consistent but his effort was very good.”
