Error in the Seventh

The Mahopac Indians celebrate after winning the 14-year-old championship Saturday. Skip Pearlman Even though Mahopac—trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh—had loaded the bases, all the Larchmont/ Mamaroneck Thunder needed was to catch the ball, a routine fly to right center, and the game and the title was theirs.

With the ball in flight, the L/M right fielder drifted under it, and you could almost hear him whispering—‘all I need to do is catch this ball and we win the championship.’

But it wasn’t to be. The ball hit the mitt, then dropped to the ground, as Mahopac runners circled the bases in disbelief, yelling and jumping in celebrating the most unlikely of victories.

The botched play gave Mahopac’s 14-year-old team—the No. 2 seed—a 5-4 victory and a WPBA championship. Larchmont/Mamaroneck, No. 4, ends the season at 22-5.

Skip Pearlman L/M’s Matt Mezansky slides safely into second, as the ball gets away from Mahopac shortstop Dan Tully. It was Mahopac catcher Steve Santini who hit that final fly ball, though no RBI were awarded due to the error.

Larchmont/Mamaroneck had scored a run on a sac fly in the top of the seventh, breaking a 3-3 tie.

“It feels great,” Mahopac coach Chris Lombardo said. “It’s nice for the boys … they got a crazy finish. Every game we’ve played against them they’re always the higher seed, and they always seem to beat us. So this was a little sweet revenge. It was definitely nice to be on the other end of it. We played well, our pitchers gave us some hits, and we gave them two runs on errors … but our guys didn’t quit.”

Dylan Jorde picked up the win on the mound, in relief of starter Anthony Lenahan. Orgy took the loss for L/M.

Skip Pearlman Mahopac starter Anthony Lenahan delivers Saturday against Larchmont/ Mamaroneck. Andrew Rodriguez had an RBI for Mahopac, Greg O’Connell went 2-for- 3 with one RBI, Christian Reifenhauser drove in a run, Santini went 2-for-4, Dan Neilis was 2-for-3 with a double, and Dan Tully doubled.

Mahopac plated three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-2 lead.

The Indians defeated Sleepy Hollow, the No. 3 seed, 8-4, in last Thursday’s semifinals, also at Crane Road. Sleepy closed at 16-4.

Santini picked up the win on the mound for Mahopac, going the distance. He struck out nine and allowed four runs on six hits.

Tully had two RBI and went 2-for- 4 with a double, Mike Komandowski was also 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, Reifenhauser had two RBI and doubled, Neilis doubled and had one RBI, Lenahan drove in a run, and Steve Nickolas was 2-for-3 with a double.

Skip Pearlman Mahopac’s Steve Santini watches a fly ball to right-center that was dropped, allowing two decisive runs to score. Mahopac ousted No. 7 Armonk, 10- 0, in six innings in Tuesday’s opening round.

Jorde got the win for Mahopac, toss- ing a complete-game, one-hitter.

Santini went 3-for-4 with three doubles and three RBI, Komandowski had one RBI, Neilis and Jorde each doubled and had one RBI, Nickolas drove in two runs, and Reifenhauser and Lenahan each had one RBI.

Mahopac broke open a 1-0 game in the fourth by scoring four times, then pushed five more home in the fifth.

“We knew we had as good a shot as anyone going in,” Lombardo said. “Jorde was awesome in the Armonk win, Santini started a little shaky, but after the third he didn’t allow a hit – that was a great performance. And in the championship game it was typical Lenahan… he was consistent and threw strikes, and got a lot of ground balls. Neilis, Reifenhauser and O’Connell all stepped up their game, and we got a lot of contributions up and down the
Skip Pearlman Dan Neilis went 2-for-3 with a double for Mahopac in the championship game.