Mamaroneck hadn’t lost a game in New York State until today’s 14-4 defeat to Fox Lane. But one loss is all it takes in the playoffs. It’s a lesson that was learned by Mamo’s 2007 squad, which didn’t lose a NY State game until Carmel upset it in the playoffs.
Unlike in 2007, this loss was no upset. Fox Lane can hit anybody. If you hold them to nine runs you can throw a parade. That’s a small victory.
“I like to think we’ve been on a roll all season,” said senior Jake McGrath. “We just had a couple off days here and there. But I think our hitting approach is great right now. We’ve just got to keep going with the bats.”
Their weakness is the lack of a reliable, go-to pitcher. Which could still burn them against Ketcham in the final. But today, Chad Stroud did a commendable job in tossing seven innings. Mamo isn’t what it once was when it comes to destroying pitchers, but it’s still dangerous. Stroud handled the Tigers well.
“And after a shaky third, he just went right back to pounding the strike zone and that’s the key,” coach Matt Hillis said. “Chad’s a plus-fastball kid with a really nice working splitter today, so that’s real nice to see.”
You can read the full game story from Rick Carpiniello in tommorow’s paper.
The Class AA final is Thursday at 4:30 at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill. It’s a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal, in which the Foxes upset top-seeded Ketcham.
36 Comments
Fox Lane V. RCK will hopefully be a great final. RCK threw their #3(Todd) in first meeting, and he did a great job of holding down the dangerous FL line-up, and was helped by a great game saving catch stealing a HR by the RCK CF(Bizzaro). This is just the kind of game these two have always played. They played a memorable 11 inn. game at the Stadium in 2007 won by a FL HR after they had gone hitless for 7 innings, and of course their great win last year when they touched up Lamando as no one else has in his h.s. career to date, taking Ketcham down again in extras.
I always got the feeling that their was mutual respect between these two programs since they play almost every year and have played so many games that went down to the last inning or extra innings.Other that the natural rivalry you are gonna have between Westchester’s best and the best from up here , you are probably not gonna get the atmosphere you would have had if Mamk would have strutted their way up Rtes 684 + 84. And with their losing big to a very good, if not great FL team, maybe there will be some acknowledgement on the part of the “mamo” bloggers that playing the schedule they did, which basically had them playing no one of consequence ahead of the sectional qtr’final game maybe did not serve them so well as far as prepping them to meet a team of the quality of FL….....
mamaroneck schedule was way harder than fox lane”s period
Talking local schedule after early April. Not the early season games v. out of state.
-Lg 1A
Can you shut up bout mamaroneck already, you’ve probably never played an inning of competitive baseball in your life. Mamk lost everyone knows that, now move on.
MAMEDIOCRENECK
I think this proves that ducking all the local programs for a self-serving easy trip through the sectionals is not a smart strategy. Nobody cares how Mamaroneck did losing against south and west teams in April. They played nobody in the last 6 weeks while the Dutchess teams and Fox Lane took on all comers and grinded out tough LOCAL schedules.
Maybe next year Mamaroneck can go lose to Mater Dei out in California in April and come back wrap up the top seed again to avoid going to Dutchess County.
concerned..
Fox Lane beating Mamaroneck proves nothing about strength of schedule. You had two terrific teams and one had a great day and beat the other. That’s baseball.
Did Arlington lose yesterday because of their schedule? No, they played and lost a semi-final baseball game to a good team. That’s it.
And what’s a “self-serving and easy trip through the sectionals”? Carmel and Suffern are hardly self-serving and easy. Lose the chip on your shoulder – you are embarrassing yourself.
Mr. Barnes,
I ralize you are a little slow. Mamaroneck had an easier trip than both Arlington and Ketcham by Virtue of the #1 seed. That is how it works. How did they get the #1 seed? Going undefeated against mediocre (at best) competition. If stating the truth is embarrassing, call me embarrassed. Arlington lost because they faced the best pitcher in the section for the 3rd time. Of their 4 losses, 3 were to Lamando. They pasted de Marte earlier in the year. They beat Kulbaba handily. They blew away Wargo. If Ketcham had the #1 seed instead of Mamaroneck, we would most likely be seeing an all Dutchess final. But, alas, if my Aunt had oinions she would be my Uncle.
Mamaroneck proved this year that the path to an unjustified #1 seed – and the easiest trip -is to play a lousy schedule and clean up. Why are they afraid to go to Dutchess County?
Mr. Mamaroneck – do us all a favor and flesh out your idiotic statement that Mamo has a tougher schedule than Fox Lane. Don’t include spring trip because it is not what is being discussed here. I really want to see your reasoning and any sign of logic, period.
Concerned citizen, you are a dope. And I will explain why.
Show me ONE cupcake, non-league team, Mamaroneckf put on their schedule? Just one. That is what I thought. You are an ignorant fool. They have NO CHOICE but to play in the leauge they are in. They are located in Southern Westchester, so they HAVE TO play southern westchester AA schools.
Your obxession about Mamaroneck is both ignorant and weird. Why if you are a Dutchess fan would you care? Worry about RCK.
Now as far as Carpinello comparing this years team to the state championship teams. It is apples and oranges. A coach would be extremely lucky to ever have a stacked team with talent like that once in a lifetime. This years Mamaroneck team is very good, not great. When you trot out an ace pitcher who throws off speed 90% of the time, you can’t go very far. Mamaronecks left side of the infield made 4 errors, and the relief pitching got roped, and in one inning Mamaroneck took strike 3 for all three of their outs (something that a great team would never do) with bases loaded. That was the difference in this game. Mamaroneck had a wonderful season, a season to be proud of. But to compare any team to those state championship teams is totally unfair.
Bottom line is, Fox Lane is better than Mamaroneck this year. Every year in high school baseball is different. You can go from “haves” to “has beens” back to “haves” every year. Mamaroneck has one of the hardest working staffs in section one, so Mamaroneck will always be one of the better teams in section one.
concerned –
I was wrong, the chip on your shoulder is actually a boulder. Would you feel better about yourself if your team was a 1 vs. a 2 seed or a 2 instead of a 3? It’s too bad that the seeding formula did so much to diminish your self esteem.
The best team will find a way to win the Section, regardless of where some formula put them, and it was a formula, not a subjective opinion. Yesterday was Fox Lane’s day from the first batter onwards and Ketcham had their ace going, so good for them. Seedings had no effect on those outcomes – the players did. Congratulate the winners and move on.
Curious.
What a dumb question. You want someone to name the tough competition Mamaroneck played but you don’t want to know about the 4 games they played against national out of state powers, and teams that at the time already played over 25 games in their season when Mamk was just starting the season? Those 4 games constitute for 20% of their total schedule and it constitutes 4 of the 6 non league games they were allowed to put on their 20 game schedule. Another non league game was against Columbia, another usually strong team in NY state. I think they also played a team from New Hampshire. So there you have it. Where is the weak team? Those 6 games are the only games they had any control over. Just because they choose not to go to your school, don’t take it so hard.
Why this is a hot topic is beyond me. As the #2 seed, you had a better seed to go far. Stop crying. I hope Fox Lane smokes you.
OK,
I guess you all seem to agree that the formula here is to play a bunch of teams from out of the region (where it does not matter if you win or lose) thereby avoiding all the competitive local programs because we would not want that to get in the way of our seeding now. Mamaroneck has you morons convinced that they are seeking better competition, when they are actually ducking the better local teams. I think it is a little more than a coincidence that while Fox Lane, Ketcham, Arlington, John Jay, Suffern, Lakeland, etc. all played each other for the most part, Mamaroneck did not schedule any of those teams. All of these kids travel for competition in the summer. Stop ducking local teams.
My point is that, which you simpletons fail to understand, is that they engineer getting an undeserved top seed – and get you sheep to think that is a good thing.
I’m happy to recommend a mental health professional for you to consult with over your obsessive comments and inferiority complex about losing to Mamaroneck in 08 & 09. There’s a book out there about a guy who tracked a big white whale that you ought to take a look at (spark notes might help). PS, it did not end so well for him.
Mamaroneck has been going on spring trips for over 15 years, this is not some recent development or conspiracy to avoid playing Arlington or Ketcham as you imply.
Why does your self esteem depend on your seed? Why are you obsessed with Mamaroneck?
Concerned….you just don’t get it! With the 20 game schedule and 14 league games, it left Mamaroneck with only 6 non-league games to schedule. Mamaroneck has a tradition of taking their players away to play in different parts of the country against some pretty decent competition every year. Why should they give that up? Because you think they should instead stay home and play the Dutchess teams? The trip not only has them playing against great competition, but gives them a great team experience, something that they work towards by fundraising as a team all year. Just because they are not playing NY teams does not lessen the strength of their opponents, and honestly I don’t think any of the players now or in the past would have given up their trips if given the choice. When the schedule was 24 games, Mamaroneck did play non-league games against northern Westchester, Rockland and Dutchess teams. Now that they have less non-league games to schedule they had to make a choice, and they choose to still make their spring trip. Get over it. No one at Mamaroneck has “engineered” getting a seed. As others have said, stop whining about where teams are seeded and just play ball.
Good Luck to Fox Lane. They played a great game yesterday.
Wow. Concerned is whack job. Mamaroneck wins two state championships and they are now afraid to play a dopey dutchess team? The one seed did nothing to help mamk. Btw, jjef lost to Ossining. So much for your dutchess dominance.
If anyone had a right to gripe it would be the westchester and rockland teams who have to play a championship game in hick town no matter what their seeding is.
Dutchess bloggers = miserable
Idiots,
I have never heard Dutchess teams complain about going to the county center for basketball. talk about whiners! Stop talking about 2 years ago. It is ancient history. I made the point a while back that the best baseball was in Dutchess County, I then stated prior to the sectional games that Mamaroneck did not deserve the top seed and I stated why. Lo and behold, I was correct on all accounts. It is funny hwo everything I said turned out to be true and you are calling me a whack job?
Don’t blame the teams for the dopey geography based leagues, 20 game limit and seeding formula. It is all perpetuated by the ADs, and doesn’t really save any money. In class B, you have an 11 hosting a 16 in the finals. Dp you really think those two finalists were not among the top 10 at the end of the regular season????
I meant class A.
concerned citizen –
I’m tired of seeing you take this abuse and suffer so much because FL denied your Arlington team the chance to beat the heck out of Mamaroneck. I heard it on good authority that Chap had the entire community moved down to southern westchester just to avoid games against some Dutchess teams. Even when won the conseutive state championships they skated through the section by messing with the seeds…oh wait, they beat Arlington each of those years. Well you are right anyway, clearly that was just plain lucky and again sorry to see it’s bothering you so much. There’s always next year…
Hey guess what Fox lane didnt play a paticualrly tough sched either and it was no where close to Mamos. Guess what they beat mamo fair and square, this schedule stuff needs to stop the beest team will win. Dutchess people go home and get a life and stop crying.
Crying? I thought I was gloating! The only crying I heard was from Westchester people who don’t want to play in Dutchess Stadium and only go north for Christmas trees and apple picking.
Go Ketcham!
yea ur right not much up there
It’s sad that you are all arguing over high school baseball…
I hope you guys do realize Fox Lane also when on the spring trip and played Top Ranked teams in the nation. At Florida the Foxes went 4-4, losing 3 times to top 25 teams in the nations, they kept the games close.
My collegue concerned citizen seems to have hit a nerve here. Mamk is a great program two state titles, etc… they chose to play those games out West and then instead of scheduling Section 1 powers a FL, RCK, Arl, etc… besides those games out west, they chose to play a team from upstate N.Y. , one from Maryland, etc…. Why ? Those teams, do not appear to have be as much of a “game” as they could have gotten locally. And then they are “rewarded” with a #1 seed in the tourney ? If I was an Arlington fan I certainly would have a problem with them being seeded above my team. For their scheduling quirks, they got to play all of their games at home thru the semi-final round. That formula should be looked at by section 1 is all I’ve said all along on here. It also comes out here that their #1 pitcher throws off-speed 90 % of the time and that their pitching is suspect and that they are not a great team this year. I guess they still deserved the #1 seed on their name alone, and the $hitty formula used to determine seedings….
I didn’t really care who won the AA championship until I read this blog topic. I know these doped don’t represent ALL of dutchess, but they certainly live up to the dumb uneducated upstate stereotype some people might project.
You gotta be an idiot to think mamk did up their schedule to get the 1 seed. If the formula is broken, fix it. But we all know you don’t have the intelligence to do that.
Please Fox Lane, win and put these miserables out of their misery.
Mamaronecks Ace throws 86 there number 2 throws knuckleballls alot, please do your homework before talking anymore. Also i find it funny how Section 1 AA praises the teams that Fox Lane plays down south but for Mamaroneck it becomes irellevant. smh…
Williams never threw 86 mph. If he did he would have college coaches knocking down his door. 82 tops. Mamaroneck chose to pitch a junkballer 2 of their first three games. I’m not sure why they thought he could pitch them to the states. It didn’t work out for them. If Williams threw games one and three, mamk could still be in the tourney.
Williams has good potential if he gets a little bigger and stronger and adds 4-5 mph on the fastball. If that happens he’s a d1 pitcher. If not, d3. Maybe pitch for Concordia or the like. Great kid. I hope he gets a shot to pitch at a good college. Great work ethic, mature as well.
Well Mamaronecks radar gun had him at 86 and perfect game had him at 84 in the fall so please again you do not know what you are talking about.
Congratulations to lakelands Jonathan de Marte for winning his second consecutive NYS gatorade player of the year
Geeez – c’mon now… read any of the posts… it explains it all. None of us hayseeds up here in farm country ever said they “did up” their schedule to get the #1 seed. We said that is how it worked out and it should not have been that way. Instead of playing E. Greenbush, Centennial Md , etc.. they could have played in-season some of the better teams in Section1. And no one would have taken offense or had any complaints if they won those games and got the #1 seed. And when you gotta read headlines from the paper down there like” Mamk had not lost a game in N.Y. state” Geeez – Geeez they never played anyone with a chance in hell of beating them before the sectionals. I said as early as several weeks ago that this might not be such a good thing for them, as they had played non- competitive , stat padding ball for over one month, and that was not gonna prep them too well for the play-offs, and I appear to have been correct. When they went on the two great runs to the state title, beating RCK+ Arlington along the way – great teams no doubt… and I have no doubt the team they had this year was a good team, but at some point the hype about them has to stop, and for anyone to proclaim them the top program in AA from now on, let them show it on the field locally. Play a decent schedule as much as possible outside of their league schedule. Win most of them , and no one says a thing….
Sedding, why then is nobody showing interest in the kid at the college level yet. I guess all the scouts radar guns are broken. Rule of thumb at mamk is if they say a kid hit .400 it is really .340. If a kid throws 86 it is really 81.
I’m not saying Williams isn’t a very good high school pitcher, I’m just saying if he throws 86 now as a small junior, a college coach would be crazy not to offer something seeing that he still will grow and most likely hit 90 in a couple of years when he’s fully physically mature.
I don’t think mamaroneck gives a damn what you dutchess people think.
Sedding, Williams might have topped out at 84 but he sits at 81-82 on most pitches. He is a good pitcher that is still developing. Mamk simply did not have the pitching that it had when they won states.
Against Suffern Williams was sitting 84 85. Mamaronecks gun is not inflated either while in Arizona a kid that they played on Rancho was hiting 89 on Mamaronecks gun, major league and college scouts that were there as well had him at the exact same thing. Also how do you know about williams college status you have never spoken to him nor do you know him