Stuyvesant 6 Smith 3
Stuyvesant climbed a huge mountain yesterday, defeating Alfred E. Smith, 6-3, to move past the first-round in the PSAL playoffs for the first time since the late 1980’s.
The Hitmen (17-8-1, 10-4-1) took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning when pitcher Chris Beattie helped his own cause, driving in shortstop Jesse Tucker, who had tripled with two outs.
Early on, the Warriors (26-11, 13-6) had a hard time getting to Beattie, who gave up just one run (in the bottom of the second) through the first five plus innings.
“I was just trying to throw strikes,” said Beattie, who went the distance, giving up three runs on seven hits. “I didn’t pitch my best game. My teammates were there for me, however. It was a team effort.”
Beattie’s teammates gave him the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth when pinch hitter Dominik Palowski drove in third baseman Eli Grant and designated hitter Peter Seidman, who both singled.
Smith threatened in the fifth after Jason Mulero singled and stole a base to lead off the inning. Chris Gutierrez then lined a shot to right field. Hitmen right fielder Haley Brawner quickly fielded the ball and gunned down Mulero, who ignored head coach David Irizarry’s stop signal at third and attempted to score.
“Anything hit that way, you have to stay,” Irizarry said. “Who knows the field better than I do?”
Things got bizarre in the bottom of the fifth when the umpires ran off the field to chase away some vandals letting the air out of their cars’ tires.
Once play resumed, Stuyvesant went back to business. With Tucker on second, Beattie grounded to the shortstop, who opted to go to third to get Tucker. The third baseman, however, mishandled the ball. Beattie took off for second and slid in safely.
On the throw back to pitcher Frank Delgado, the shortstop threw the ball low and off Delgado’s foot. As Delgado scrambled for the ball, Tucker came in to score. Eli Grant capped off the inning when he made it 5-1 with a sacrifice fly, giving Beattie an ample cushion.
Smith tagged Beattie for two runs in the top of the sixth. The Hitmen scored once more in the bottom of the inning, but it wasn’t necessary as Beattie had a relatively easy seventh to give his team the win.
“We have nothing to lose now that we’ve done what we wanted to,” Beattie said, referring to his team overcoming its first-round jinx. “We can just go and play as hard as we can.”