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By Elio Velez
Brooklyn Daily
Telecommunications took home its first-ever city baseball title on Sunday by playing, and winning, as a team.
“I couldn’t ask for a better game,” said senior pitching ace Chris Lee. “My team played a stellar game.”
No. 4 seed Telecom beat No. 6 Norman Thomas 4–1 for the Public School Athletic League’s Class A on Sunday afternoon at MCU Park.
Lee dazzled on the mound, playing with his mother in mind, striking out seven, allowing only four hits and not walking a single batter. He dedicated the win to his mother Deanna watching from the stands after recovering from Stage 2 breast cancer.
Lee mixed his fastball and off-speed pitches effectively and worked out of trouble in the sixth inning. Norman Thomas (19–3) put the first two runners on base and he allowed just a long sacrifice fly to Kenny Feliz-Ramos that cut Telecom’s lead to 2–1.
Telecom coach Ed D’Alessio said the team benefitted all season long from the contributions of a number of players, and that dynamic continued through the title game.
Senior centerfielder Josh Palacios had two hits and made a spectacular diving catch in the top of the seventh to rob an extra base hit.
Austin Ruiz overcame the absence of his father, who was in the hospital recovering from hip surgery, to deliver leadoff hits that ignited the scoring rallies in the fifth and sixth innings. Freshman catcher Isaiah Spears drove in two vital runs.
“We’re not really the type of team who blows teams away,” said D’Alessio, who in his 13th season. “We play good solid baseball. Our pitchers throw strikes and we make the plays.”
A great scoring chance came early for Telecom (22–0) when Palacios stroked a one-out triple in the third inning. Norman Thomas sniffed out the attempted suicide squeeze from Brandon Marquez to tag the Stony Brook-bound Palacios out at the plate to keep the game scoreless into the fifth.
The Yellow Jackets kept plugging away. Ruiz and Alexander Serrano led off with singles in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Spears dribbled a grounder to third base and Ruiz beat the throw at the plate. Marquez walked with the bases loaded to score Serrano from third to take a 2–0 lead.
Norman Thomas displayed sloppy play with no outs in the sixth inning. A throwing error by Feliz-Ramos at first base allowed Ruiz to score from second base and Spears looped a single to right field to increase Telecom’s lead to 4–1.
The win was more than enough to relieve some of the disappointment Palacios felt after not getting picked in the recent MLB First Year Player draft. Winning a championship remained the top priority for the star centerfielder and his team.
“We left our heart on the field all year and that was all that mattered, and we ended up winning the ‘chip,” Palacios said. “We played as a team.”