Putnam serves notice to Dutchess powers
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- April
- 29
For much of the month, our good readers from Dutchess have written in and criticized Mahopac and Carmel, or at the very least questioned the two Putnam schools’ chances in the League 1-C race. I thought the criticism was a tad too harsh — especially for April — but Ketcham, John Jay and Arlington fans have reason to puff their chests.
Facts are facts: Mahopac and Carmel have struggled mightily in recent years against their Dutchess counterparts. Let’s look at the last two years alone. Mahopac has a 32-18 record. Carmel is 27-27. Not bad, especially Mahopac. However, the Indians are just 8-11 vs. the three Dutchess schools and 24-7 against everyone else. Carmel has had even less success. The Rams are 5-14 vs. Dutchess and 22-13 against the rest of their opponents.
Carmel began its league slate ominously when it was no-hit by Eric Luksis in a 4-0 John Jay win. But yesterday the Rams topped red-hot Arlington 7-4 behind a strong start from Mike Volpe and another ho-hum day from Zack Graczyk, who went 4 for 4 with a homer and four RBI. For Volpe, the compete game win was a sign that his stamina is coming back.
Of course, no rest for Carmel, which will have a chance to prove itself even further against John Jay today.
Mahopac had an equally impressive win. It beat up John Jay 12-3 yesterday at home behind six strong innings of three-hit ball from Nick Iuni and four RBI from Alec Petrone, whose three-run triple keyed a five-run second inning that gave Iuni all the cushion he needed.
Still, Petrone had company. Pat Farina, for one, had a pair of extra-base hits and later came on to pitch a perfect seventh.
“We had 11 hits so I was very pleased with the effort,” new Mahopac coach Chris Miller told me via e-mail. “I can only hope it continues.”
I said this in yesterday’s top 10, but I’ll say it again: The Indians are really just a couple more clutch hits from a perfect start to the season. Don’t forget that. Yes, they have two losses, but both were by a run. Since they’ve added five straight wins over the likes of North Rockland, White Plains, Scarsdale and the two John Jays. All five are quality wins.
The Dutchess folks better be careful. This could be a different season.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 4:44 pm by Josh Thomson. 
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Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in
March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of
2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has
since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting,
Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his
fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning
fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and
insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh
graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University,
where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in
history. 
Jake Thomases has covered baseball, hockey, girls basketball, and girls soccer for the Journal News since arriving in 2003. He previously interned at The Poughkeepsie Journal while attending Vassar College. He is socking money away under his mattress to buy the Knicks, at which time he will trade Jerome James to Cleveland for a ham sandwich.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet !! I believe that both Putnam teams pitched their aces yesterday and as was said previously, they would be tough to beat with them pitching. Let’s see how they do overall in the full 9 game slate vs. Dutchess. Up here, RCK seems to have bounced back and is now hitting the ball with 33 runs in the last two games after pretty much being stifled by Arlington in 3 straight one run losses, one in extra. A great matchup coming up is Kennedy Vs. RCK this Sat. up here. I’d like to see that game. Should be a good one.As I also said , EF will have a tough time winning without Luksis on the mound. They do not have any depth in the pitching staff this year.
Suffern defeats Clarkstown South 6-1.
Carmel beat JJEF today
Here’s another interesting fact on the bal of power in Dutchess itself. With the three wins this year, Arlington has won 7 of 10 in the last three years vs. RCK. Kind of an unheard of thing since Mealy came on the scene.I believe all but one of those wins by Arl. were by a single run. Incredibly even teams I’d say. JJ EF has also had the upper hand winning 4 of the last 6 vs. RCK. This RCK senior class is probably the best one they have had since the 2004-6 era in which they went to the state final one year and won it the next. Just a great bunch of hitters 1-5 in their order and it seems like they are starting to hit some now.
Who pitched for Suffern?
Carmel defeated a strong JJEF today 6-4 with great pitching by Zack Graczyk throwing the complete game with 140 pitches to secure the victory. JJEF no-hit this Carmel team previously in the year but Carmel had clutch hits this time around and showed them they aren’t the team they used to be in this league. I am very curious to see who prevails on top of League I-C where it is a tough battle for whoever takes the trophy but at the end of the year the best team shall survive.
Carmel’s game versus EF was its second league game..It beat Mahopac in the opener….
FYI it was its 4 league game and 3-1 in keague
carmel even though getting no hit by jjef proved themselves with two back to back wins agaisnt these dtuchess schools taking the opener of a three gaem series with arlington who is 12th in the state according tot he recent poll and i think the even more notable win at jjef today bouncing back from a no hit….its hard enough to go on the road in your league and win a game but after just being no hit there a couple weeks ago shows alot of heart from this carmel team ….they have two more league games this week with arlington and if carmel can win the series they will b atop the league with 2 game left with mahopac one with jjef and 3 with ketcham who is already 0-3 in the league
jj beats fox lane 11-7
carmel and mahopac have played many years against dutchess schools and ussually have done real well(especially football);baseball in the last few years has the dutchess schools faring better.lets remember arlington is more than double the size of mahopac and carmel.jay and rck are too almost double the size..arlington graduates 950 students a year rck and jay 700—carmel and mahopac only 400..most schools would be crying put in to leagues with that many students;;carmel and mahopac have always done very well in all sports even with the size difference
Please fix your website as it relates to statistics. Your page is very confusing and difficult to navigate. Please switch to Max Preps. Thank You.
Josh…you guys really need to include info on the Dutchess teams that compete in Section 1…at the very least get game scores!!!! and keep their records up to date.
Hey Joe B. C’mon. Get our facts straight. I am not sure on your data on Arlington, I know it is a huge school, but RCK and JJEF graduate just over 500 kids per. Not 700. So they are larger but more in the neighborhood than Arlington when compared to the Putnam schools.
hey dutch—arlington had very close to a 1000 freshmen enter the school in the last two incoming freshmen classes..i bet rck an jay have closer to 700 than 500.maybe josh could check
your all buggin.. carmel is legit… the haters be out
There are 504 kids in RCK class of 2010. That I do know.
Hey deecavers…....legit? How so…dont give me the lineup that doesnt hit!
Anyone have a clue where Mahopac manufactures all those lefties? They must start early in their program changing kids- or is it the parents?