Baseball: Hen Hud Edges Peekskill

With Peekskill (5-13) pulling to within one run of Hendrick Hudson’s lead, 3-2, in the bottom of the sixth, Sailor ace pitcher Dan Briggi knew he had to get a big out and he did just that.

With two outs and runners on first and second, Briggi got Nick DeChristopher to ground to shortstop and the Sailors (8-11) eventually held on for a 3-2 victory.

“I let the No. 9 hitter on before 1 and 2 to start the inning,” Briggi said. “I just had to bear down and throw strikes, I couldn’t hit people. He didn’t hit the fastball as well today so I kept with that and it worked.”

Briggi said the key to his success was that two pitches were working for him- the fastball and curveball.

The game Briggi and his teammates won was unique because the visiting Red Devils actually got last licks. That’s because the contest was originally scheduled to be their home game but got moved from the Peekskill Stadium to the Kenneth A. Byrnes Field because the stadium was deemed not playable due to the weather.

Byrnes Field was ready to go on Thursday and so were the Sailors when they scored two runs in the top of the third. Ryan Brennan started the rally with a double and came home on a one-out single by Greg Graziani.

Graziani then scored on Matt Solnick’s two-out single to put the Sailors up 2-0.

Hen Hud increased its lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning. That’s where Brian Juliano led off with a triple and scored when Brennan struck out on a dropped third strike.

Peekskill catcher Dontae Harris missed the tag on Brennan and threw to first to record the out but on the play Juliano raced home to score Hen Hud’s third run.

“He went on his own,” said Hen Hud coach Paul Natale, who was coaching third base. “I just told Brian to be aggressive on anything. They didn’t look him back, he had a big lead, he’s very fast and he just took off.”

Peekskill began a rally of its own in the sixth inning when Samora Vanderpuije got hit by a pitch and advanced to second when hard-luck pitcher Brian Dwyer walked. Both runners moved up a base to second and third on a passed ball.

Vanderpuije then scored on Mario Rice’s sacrifice fly to left field, which was caught just in front of the fence.

Dwyer came in on a one-out single by Nick Soto to pull Peekskill to within one but that’s where DeChristopher grounded out to shortstop to end the threat.

“We noticed he (Briggi) was throwing a lot of pitches away, trying to throw away from the righties,” Peekskill coach Chris Salumn said. “We just tried to take it the other way, get a little more on top of the plate. We didn’t hit today, it’s been the story all season. We hit for one inning. If we hit for another inning or two, we probably would’ve won the game. The players did play hard though.”

Salumn was pleased with Dwyer’s complete-game effort on the mound.

“He’s been our best pitcher all year,” Salumn said. “He was able to get ahead and throw a lot of strikes. He ended up with nine strikeouts. He kept the hitters off balance. He has been consistent all year. We expect that from every time he takes the mound. He did a good job today.”

Natale was likewise happy with his ace Briggi, who also pitched a complete game while striking out seven, including the final three batters of the game.

“He had a nice performance,” Natale said. “He has been our best pitcher all season long. He has kept us in every game he pitched, expect for one outing but other than that, he’s been steady all year.”

That’s because Briggi doesn’t give in to anybody.

“Hopefully he will continue to pitch well because he will go against whoever we get in the sectionals," Natale said.

Schedule

The out-bracket for the sectionals is Wednesday, May 25 with the first round being the following day.

Hen Hud’s final regular-season game will be at home at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 24 against Putnam Valley. Peekskill will play at Lakeland 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 23 and also has a home game against Our Lady of Lourdes at a date and time to be announced.