McNamara, Brewster Surprise Lakeland

BREWSTER—The Brewster High baseball team got a strong effort from starter Brian McNamara last Friday, and the Bears walked away with a 4-3 victory over one of the best teams in the section – Lakeland, in a League 1-B game played at Brewster.

Mike Blank of Brewster is out at second, as Lakeland’s Chris Salvo looks to first. SKIP PEARLMAN The Bears also routed Putnam Valley, 11-2, the prior Wednesday at Brewster.

Friday against Lakeland (6-3, 0-1), McNamara had all his pitches working, and scattered seven hits. Nick Caruso took the loss for the Hornets.

Brewster (5-1-1, 1-0) trailed 2-1 after three innings, but the Bears pushed three runs across in the bottom of the fourth to seal the win.

McNamara started the fourth-inning rally with an RBI double. Tyler Hanson then got an infield single that scored a run, and Brewster scored the game-winning run on an error, when Caruso tried to pick off Hanson at first – allowing Sean Trainor to score.

Brewster’s Brian McNamara beat one of the section’s best teams last week. Jon deMarte and Joe Arena had RBI for Lakeland.

“It was a big win,” Bears manager Ed Mulvihill said. “They’re the No. 3 ranked team in the state, so any win over Lakeland is big. We played good defense, and McNamara worked hard. He got in and out of trouble, threw a lot of curves, changes… a lot of off-speed stuff. And we got some timely hitting. Trainor had two big hits for us, and McNamara had a big RBI double – that got us going.”

The prior Wednesday against Putnam Valley (2-4), Chris Byrnes picked up his third win against no losses, in a complete game performance. Byrnes struck out five and walked two. Gembecki took the loss for the Tigers.

Trainor went 2-for-3 with three RBI, Mike Benvenuto was 3-for-4 with two RBI, McNamara drove in a run and went 2-for-3, Adriel Barnes drove in a run and went 2-for-3 with a double and a triple, and Byrnes was 2-for-4 with a double.

Brewster’s Sean Trainor went 2-for-3 in win over Lakeland. SKIP PEARLMAN “Chris pitched a great game,” Mulvihill said. “He gave up two unearned runs… he was in complete control. Barnes gave us two big hits, and Benvenuto stepped in at DH and has done a good job for us.”

Brewster is at Carmel today (Thursday) at 4:30, and the Bears take on the Rams again Friday at Renegade Stadium at 6:30 p.m.
Scott Sheppard had an RBI vs. Lakeland. SKIP PEARLMAN