By Ted Waddell
JEFFERSONVILLE — June 1, 2001 – The Fallsburg Comets hopes’ of capturing their first baseball title of any kind in more than forty years took another step forward as they pounded Sullivan West/Jeffersonville-Youngsville 13-3 in Wednesday’s Class C semifinal at Lions Field.
Darren Kenney struck out seven on his way to victory. In the second frame “Dr. K” pitched his way out of trouble with the bases loaded, and made the final out of a scoreless inning by fielding a high pop up. On a couple of other occasions, he reached down and hurled his way out of a jam, leaving SW/J-Y runners stranded in scoring position.
Fallsburg will face the winner of the Tuxedo-Pine Plains semifinal in today’s championship game at 4 p.m. at Kingston’s Gruner Field.
“Darren pitched another great game,” said Comet coach Brett Cancredi. “He’s been doing that all year, and he has incredible poise on the mound. When the going gets tough, he gets even tougher… he’s got damage control.”
Kenney’s reaction to the win?
“It was definitely the big win,” he said. “It was a big game coming in, and we knew we had to get the job done. We played our ‘A Game’ today.”
Kenney was slated to pitch in today’s title tilt on one day’s rest.
“We’ve got to stay focused,” Kenney commented. “We’re looking to get the championship. We’ve got to play hard, and we’re going to give it our best shot.”
Fallsburg last played at Gruner in 1993, losing the Class D title game to Jeff-Youngsville 2-1.
Wednesday’s semifinal was scoreless until Fallsburg’s Mike Hernandez led off the second inning with a single against SW/J-Y starter Billy Reichmann. Rafi Fine reached on a single. A double by Austin Pantel — his first of four during the game — scored Hernandez. Eddie Inzauto singled and Corey Huber reached on an error. Kenney doubled to send Inzauto across the plate. Mike Gilberg reached on an error by the SW shortstop, a play that scored two runs.
The Comets added three runs in the top of the fourth. Kenney singled with two out, followed by a single by Gilberg. Joe Calvello stepped up to the plate and nailed a two-run double to score Kenney and Gilberg. Hernandez then doubled to score Calvello to make it a 8-0 ballgame.
In the bottom of the fourth, Emanuel Toledo led off with a single for SW/J-Y. In the wildest play of the afternoon, Everett Saul singled and the ball got by the second baseman, causing a collision on the line between first and second. Toledo legged it to third, and scored after the ball was tossed into dead ball territory.
In the fifth, the Comets racked up four runs to make it a 12-1 ballgame. Pantel led off with a double. Jeff O’Neill tripled to send Pantel home. Kenney singled to score Pantel. Gilberg reached on a single. Hernandez rocked a two RBI single to score Kenney and Gilberg.
In the top of the sixth, Pantel led off with a double. Huber singled to score Pantel to give the Comets a 13-1 lead.
Toledo reached on an error to start the sixth. Saul got to first after getting hit by a pitch. Matt Lanese singled to score Toledo. Jon Tanous hit into a fielder’s choice to send Saul across the plate to end the game’s scoring at 13-3.
Kenney (6–1) struck out seven for the win. Reichmann (4–1) picked up his first loss of the season.
Fallsburg finished up the game with a 14–4 overall record; the Trojans closed out their season at 10–4.
“It was a tough loss,” said SW/J-Y coach Kurt Scheibe “Fallsburg came ready to play, and they had a lot of good hits. Today, they were the better team.
“We made a lot of mistakes base running-wise,” he added. “We had guys stuck halfway between bases, not sure where they were going. Kenney’s a good pitcher. He came up with the key pitches and got the key outs when he needed them.”
Brett Cancredi summed up the Comets’ victory. “Our bats came alive and we played good defense. We hit the ball well, and we got the outs when we needed them.”