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By Joseph Staszewski and Patrick McCormack
Brooklyn Daily
Telecommuncation’s bats were silenced just when they were needed the most.
The third-seeded defending champion Yellow Jackets managed just one hit against No. 6 Cardozo and ace Keith Rogers in a 1–0 defeat in the Public School Athletic League Class A baseball quarterfinals last Wednesday at Thomas Jefferson Athletic Complex.
The Judges got their lone run in the third inning on a ground out after a Yellow Jackets’ error and a pass ball opened the door.
“Their guy was lights out,” Telecom coach Ed D’Alessio said. “The kid pitched an all-city game. The kid basically won the game by himself.”
The contest was supposed to be played on Tuesday, but was postponed by league officials after Cardozo coach Ron Gorecki protested that the field at Grand Street was “unsafe” and claimed the mound was an illegal height.
The silent Telecom bats wasted a fine performance from starter Juan Rodriguez, who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth. The Yellow Jackets (18–2), with just 12 players on the roster, had chances to get on the board, but could not cash in. Telecom had runners on first and second in the first inning with two outs, but Kevin Urena struck out to end the frame.
An inning later, the Yellow Jackets had a runner on second with no outs, but the bottom of the order could not get the job done. Rogers settled down for Cardozo (18–1) after that, despite throwing 40 pitchers after the first two innings.
“We had nothing after that,” D’Alessio said. “I don’t even think we got a guy on second base.”
The best chance the Yellow Jackets had to get on the board after that was a drive to the left field fence by Austin Ruiz that was caught in the fifth inning. Telecom got the leadoff man on in the seventh, but then hit into a double play that perpetuated a tough day for the Yellow Jackets.
The Yellow Jackets had to wait another day to play after the contest was postponed because Gorecki complained of “dangerous field conditions” at Grand Street Campus. Telecom was on the field helping get it ready for the game, while the Judges wanted no part in the grounds work. Quarterfinal games are played at neutral sites.
“There is nothing wrong with this — this was nice right now,” D’Alessio said after 45 minutes of work was done to the field. “He [Gorecki] was adamant about not playing. He felt it was unsafe, that was his sticking point that the field was unsafe and he didn’t want to be responsible if someone gets hurt.”
Gorecki said when he arrived at the field the umpires were trying to break up the hardened dirt on the infield.
“You have mud and you got hard cement over there, I am not putting my kids out there,” he said. “I would rather not play the game. For the playoffs, play on a safe environment. Why not give the last eight teams standing a shot of playing on a great field?”
Other than the hardened base paths, Gorecki saw an issue with the pitcher’s mound at the Brooklyn school.
“It’s an illegal mound that is out there,” he said. “It is hard it looks like a rock. That mound shouldn’t be two and a half feet in the air.”
Grand Street coach Steve Martinez, whose team didn’t practice on the field, said nothing has been done to change the size of the mound since the start of the season.
“We have been playing there all year,” Martinez said.
Work also had to be done on John Adam’s field prior to Grand Street taking on James Monroe. The Spartans were eliminated from the playoffs back on May 21. Monroe coach Mike Turo said he and his coaches shaved six inches of dirt off the mound in the morning to get it to the proper height and were continuing to fix the field prior to game time.
“It’s got to be something nice for both teams,” Turo said. “If you have two teams of this quality you got to pick good fields. It has to be done that way.”