Two significant tournaments took place in Rockland this weekend: the Dave Siegriest Memorial tournament at Nyack and the Northeast Elite tournament at Clarkstown South. Their championship games were only 16 hours apart, but they couldn’t have been more different. The last couple of years I’ve made an effort to cover both, and was able to do it again this year.

On Saturday night the Siegriest tournament wrapped with Hen Hud beating Brewster 7-1. It was odd seeing these two northern schools as the only ones on a Rockland field. I’m sure they felt strange too. Host Nyack and Pearl River had both lost their first-round games, so they were relegated to the consolation. As soon as their game ended they took off. Who could blame them? It was a bitterly cold night that had me pulling my winter coat, hat, and gloves out of storage. The first Viking to speak after postgame ceremonies said, “Now let’s get out of here!”

Hen Hud buzzed through Brewster pretty easily behind Mike Tandy’s five-hitter. Tandy threw strikes and kept the ball low, resulting in 14 ground ball outs, most early in the count. He’s been Mr. Consistency lately with three consecutive complete games and one earned run allowed. T.J. Olesczuk, the tourney MVP, had a pair of doubles and scored three times. Nyack hammered Pearl River in the consolation, 18-1.

After the final game, Nyack’s new coach Erik Lazerus said a few words about Siegriest. I thought it was a nice gesture. Considering Lazerus never even met him, nobody would have blamed him for handing out the trophies and running. Especially since, being from southern California, yesterday’s weather was the equivalent of -3 degrees for him. However you feel about Nyack’s struggles and Pete Recla’s dismissal, you have to give Lazerus credit for reaching out to the pro-Siegriest (and therefore pro-Recla) community.

Today’s Northeast Elite championship was much more pleasant. For one it was warm and sunny. For another, the game was a thriller. South beat Guilderland 5-4 on Michael Zeman’s bases-loaded, two-out hit up the middle. The sophomore 9-hole batter was looking curveball on 2 and 2 but got a fastball and made good contact. He threw his helmet into the air before hopping into a crowd of teammates. The Vikings (pictured above as Alex Lorenc scores the winning run) were as pumped for this win as for any playoff game. It was their 12th straight and by far the most dramatic. Their opponent was the defending Section 2 champion. Guilderland had just beaten undefeated and nationally ranked George Washington. That’s how it goes in this tournament, where eight of New York’s best teams knock each other around for three days. Make it two seasons in a row in which South emerged from this mountain of talent the winner.

The Vikings took a 4-3 lead in the fifth on J.J. Giordano’s two-run single. In the top of the sixth, with the tying run on second, Guilderland’s Steve Anderson belted a shot into the third-base hole. Shortstop Frankie Salerno made one of the great catches you will ever see, diving high to his right to pull it down. He popped up and spiked the ball like a football. But South would end up giving away its lead next inning on a couple of ground balls that, had they been fielded cleaner, could have stopped the run from scoring. The Vikings showed real resiliency in coming back in the bottom half to win.