Edgemont baseball late rally cut short against Pawling

“We had come back before,” coach Mike Cozza said. “In the Port Chester consolation game we were down by four in the bottom of the seventh and we scored five runs. This team never gives up. That’s why I like this team. It’s why Coach [Corey] Borowitz and I love coming to practice, love coming to the games because this is a team that doesn’t give up.”

It was a tight game for two innings at 2-2, but Pawling scored the go-ahead and deciding runs in the bottom of the third inning, putting up a five-spot against junior starter David Larsen, who got knocked out after 2.2 innings, even after staying in after taking a line drive off the shin.

“He struggled a little bit,” Cozza said. “They hit the ball. We got a lot of two-strike counts, just couldn’t get that final strike. They swung the bats and some pitches missed spots, but he was right there for us today. He’s been our ace and he won three of our five games. He battled and I think the comebacker to his shin didn’t help him. He was hurting and he didn’t say anything. He’s a battler.”

Sophomore Ari Malz, who was in line to start in the next game if the team advanced, knew he might pitch if the situation was called for. He only allowed one unearned run over the next 3.1 innings to keep Edgemont in the game.

“Ari has been our No. 2 all year,” Cozza said. “He’s a different pitcher than Dave. He spots his fastball, throws a curveball, has a nice change-up. I wanted to pitch him on Monday, but I needed Ari to shut the door and keep it at seven or eight runs and he did. We tried a late comeback and fell just short.”

With the team’s starting catcher absent, coaches Cozza and Corey Borowitz didn’t hesitate to call up sophomore Ammaar Shariff to catch the morning playoff game after catching a junior varsity game the evening prior.

“He can play at this level,” Cozza said. “Hitting is always the last thing to come and we didn’t need him for his hitting today. I needed him to control the pitching and help David out. David was comfortable with him behind the dish, so it was good to have the pitcher relaxed and as comfortable as possible.”

Shariff didn’t start the season as a catcher, but after two JV catchers got hurt, Shariff stepped up.

“He was a pitcher/infielder, so he helped the JV out and did a great job down there,” Cozza said. “He learned a lot this season, has a great arm as a pitcher and a catcher, he’s learning how to frame, learning how to block.”

The Panthers were also without some back-ups in a must-win game.

“It’s tough and can be a little demoralizing, but we have a good bunch of guys and our motto is just next man up,” Cozza said. “That’s what has to happen and they did their best. We would like everybody here in a playoff game, but it is what it is.”

Senior captain Josh Dalal provided the highlight for Edgemont in the top of the sixth inning when he blasted a home run over the fence in his final at bat.

“That was pretty surreal and sparked everyone and in the next inning in the seventh we got a couple of guys on base and put the ball in play,” Dalal said. “That was incredible.”

For Dalal, close but no cigar summed up the team’s season as they finished 5-16, mostly due to fielding errors and one blow-up inning per game, though often the team was competitive.

“We’ve always been right there,” Dalal said. “We’ve never given up and that’s one of the things I love about this team, different from teams in the past. We’re always fighting. That double play was killer. We had momentum and if that gets through the run scores and there’s no outs and it changes everything with a couple runners on. I’m excited to see what they do next year. Hopefully they can get over the hump and have a winning team.”

Junior captain Joe Siegal kept telling his teammates throughout the game that he believed in them, trying to pump them up and give them confidence. Though it came late in the game, the Panthers finally showed that spark.

“We had three double plays today,” Siegal said. “The final score was 8-4, but it easily could have been closer or in our favor. It was an unlucky break.”

Edgemont graduates third baseman Josh Dalal, catcher Alex Kronk, outfielder David Litvak and first baseman Nate Parsons, three of whom started.

“David Litvak was a third baseman converted to an outfielder last year and loved the role,” Cozza said. “His maturity level improved greatly and he knew last year a play would go wrong for him and he’d take the at bat to the field and the fielding to the at bat, head down, bad body language. This year different person and I could see him so much more confident from last year. He said he learned from his mistakes, which we want as a coaching staff for every player to say.”

The good news is Edgemont returns the bulk of its innings pitched.

“I told the team that there’s going to be competition at every position,” Cozza said. “We have 95% of our pitching staff back, plus they have four or five good pitchers down on JV, good infielders. We have an outfield with three guys coming back, plus what’s on our bench, plus whatever is coming up. There’s competition and we’re going to try to start offseason early this year if we’re allowed to in the gyms or renting out cages. They’re already talking about next year, which is good.”

Larsen led the team with seven starts, 32 innings pitched, 48 strikeouts and three wins. He had a 5.69 earned run average.

Malz pitched 28 innings, struck out 22 and had a 4.25 ERA. Junior Ben Marx pitched 17.1 innings, Siegal 13.2, junior Ian Scherr 12.1. All of these pitchers will return next year. Josh Dalal pitched 11.2 innings, Parsons 7.2 as seniors.

In nine games between being a fill-in and then being called up, eighth grader Will Terrasi had 21 at bats and hit .286.

Siegal, Larsen, Malz and Josh Dalal all hit between .250 and .255. Larsen led the team with 15 hits, followed by Siegal with 14, junior Ryan Dalal 13 and Josh Dalal 12. Ryan Dalal drove in 13 runs, Josh Dalal, Parsons and junior Jared Borg eight each. Siegal and Larsen each scored 17 runs, Ryan Dalal 12, Josh Dalal nine. Siegal had six doubles. Ryan Dalal walked 11 times, Josh Dalal nine, Siegal eight, Larsen seven. Larsen stole 10 bases, Siegal and Ryan Dalal nine each.

“I’m excited for next year,” Siegal said. “We have a good junior class this year that’s going to turn into seniors next year. I’m excited to have Larsen coming back as our ace for the third year in a row. He’s going to keep getting better. It’s just about kids getting more mature, getting older and having some kids come up from JV like Ammaar.”

The seniors agreed in the postgame huddle that offseason work was key, with Parsons going as far as giving the team directions to the weight room at the high school.

“Our coach touched on this with us that one thing we need to do is get started a little earlier before the season,” Josh Dalal said. “We started off a little bit slow, so if we can get started a little early and get the pitching machine fixed then it would be a lot easier for us.”