NCN Girls’ Basketball/Baseball Blog

1) Kennedy Catholic (19-1) — The Gaels locked up the No. 1 seed in the Class B sectionals a long time ago and are primed to repeat as sectional champions.

But as Coach Bob Fletcher always says, baseball is a funny game and you can run into that one pitcher that shuts you down.

Can anyone stop this runaway freight train?

I don’t see it happening. Not even Rye Neck’s Ryan Pennell and his 0.14 ERA could shut them down.

The Gaels have had some close ones of late with two 4-2 wins over John Jay and Putnam Valley. The PV game is somewhat alarming, but I think the Tigers are much better than they have played this season.

2) Lakeland (18-1) — Last season Lakeland was the No. 1 seed and was upset by Ardsley in the quarterfinals. This season, they’re No. 1 again heading into the Class A sectionals.

Will it be déjà vu all over again?

“You don’t want to think about last year,” senior catcher Jon Cosenza said. “You just want to go out with a new set of people and have it end differently this year.”

“Last year is last year,” Coach Dennis Robinson added.

But will this year be different?

The team is almost completely different from last year outside of Cosenza, Joe Arena, and a few others. So that may benefit the team in that most of them didn’t experience last season’s heartbreak.

Robinson has been to the sectional finals 12 times in his long tenure. With dominant pitching in Arena and Jon Demarte, a stellar defense, and a capable lineup, he could be making it 13.

3) Carmel (14-6) — A big concern for Coach Bob Shilling is the long layoff between the end of the regular season and their first sectional game. The Rams closed out the season back on May 20, so it will be a week and a half wait before they play Saturday.

Carmel is looking at a seed probably around 7-9, which means they should get a home playoff game — a goal for the team.

With Mike Volpe on the hill, I like Carmel advancing to the quarterfinals. But how the rest of the staff responds will be the difference in how far the Rams will go.

In the opening round, they could be facing a team like…

4) John Jay (14-6) — Jay and Carmel have identical records, so it only makes sense that they could be facing each other Saturday. In my opinion, it would be the game of the first round — keep your fingers crossed.

The Indians are 3-4 in their last seven, including a surprising loss to Tappan Zee. While most teams want to be peaking right now, the Indians seem to be headed in another direction.

Stephen Green has not pitched since May 6. Is his shoulder acting up again?

“We’re just trying to get him ready for sectionals,” Coach Geoff Curtis said. “I probably expect him back on the mound shortly.”

Let’s hope for John Jay’s sake that the left-handed flamethrower is back ASAP, as in Saturday. Not to say John Jay doesn’t have other capable arms in Jared Hirschberg, Lou Ricci, and so on, but they obviously want their ace back for sectionals.

Without him last year, they advanced all the way to the Class AA semifinals. And with him? Time will tell.

5) Somers (15-4) — Dan Zlotnick tweaked his hamstring back on April 10 in a 7-6 loss to Walter Panas. It has taken him some time to get back into a groove and he said that it never hurt his swing, but running the bases has been difficult at times.

“I’ve felt good,” Zlotnick said. “I just take extra care, stretching before games and before every at bat I’ll stretch in the on deck circle.”

The Tuskers will need a fully healthy Zlotnick to make a deep run and have a chance to three-peat as sectional champs.
The Tuskers have changed around their batting order of late, moving James O’Hare from the No. 2 spot to the six hole. Coach Joe Wootten wants to give O’Hare more RBI opportunities with guys like Kyle Woltersdorf (.700 OBP) and Zack Bird (.500 OBP) getting on in front of him. Bird has been batting cleanup with Kevin Watson hitting fifth.

Woltersdorf said the two-time defending sectional champs treated the Mahopac game like it was the first round of sectionals and are carrying that mindset into their final game with Fox Lane on May 26. They have locked up the No. 2 seed and a first round bye.

“We just want one good win after another,” Woltersdorf said. “Hopefully our pitching staff will come through and our bats stay hot, and we’ll hopefully go for that three-peat.”

6) Hendrick Hudson (14-6) — The Sailors locked up the No. 3 seed after defeating Ossining on Tuesday.

But Coach Paul Natale isn’t too concerned with seeding.

“We still have to play and we still have to win,” Natale said.

And the way the Sailors put up runs against Yorktown this past week, I think they can make a deep run as long as their pitching does their part.

Senior Matt DeSilva also thinks they need the bottom of the batting order to contribute to make a deep run.

“We really need those guys to step up and hit the ball,” DeSilva said.

Outside looking in: Walter Panas (9-9) is much better than they’ve played of late. They could easily pull off an upset or two in sectionals. Briarcliff (13-7) has the type of pitching rotation, especially with Jordan Sacks at full strength, which can help them win the close games in sectionals and make a run.

— Mike Sabini contributed to these rankings.