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Somers cruises past Beacon
Rob DiAntonio
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LINCOLNDALE, N.Y. — On Saturday, Somers high school held “Spring Fest,” a full day of sports that featured every spring team sport at each level playing at the school.
This day also just happened to be the baseball team’s senior day. The 10 seniors on the team lined up before the first pitch with their parents by their side and received their recognition before taking the field to play.
It wasn’t long before the juniors got in on the action too.
Somers (5-2-1) cruised to a 7-1 victory over Beacon behind big days from juniors JT Genovese and Joey Scambia. The Tuskers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but posted two runs in the third and three runs in the fourth to break the game wide open.
“We won because of solid pitching,” Scambia said. “JT pitched a gem. He kept them really off balance; he had to have gotten five or six pop-ups because of his change-up. They were way out in front and he had them guessing the whole time. That with some timely hitting and solid defense; we put it all together today.”
Genovese threw five strong innings, notching two strikeouts and giving up only three hits. He controlled the game throughout and never got into any real trouble.
“Everything clicked,” Genovese said. “I’ve been throwing a lot because, mechanically, I didn’t feel I was all the way there. Yesterday, I found myself and it all came together, for me and the team. We really pulled it together.”
While Genovese led the way on the mound, he was ejected from the game for wearing jewelry in the sixth inning. The umpire had warned the team twice before, but Genovese said after that he was outside of dugout when the umpire made his warning.
However, Spencer Ballot came in to relieve Genovese and pitched well. Ballot did not surrender a run and had two strike-outs.
“We got a warning and (Genovese) went out and had jewelry on,” said Somers coach Joe Wootten. “He made a mistake and he got pulled for it, but he’ll learn from that mistake. Spencer came in and got the job done. He threw some off-speed stuff and made them put it in play, and we made the plays for him.”
While Genovese and Ballot did their work on the mound, Scambia did his damage from the plate. Scambia went 2-for-3 from the plate with four RBIs, a double, and a single, including a rocket in the third inning which gave the Tuskers a three-run lead to break the game open.
“It’s been rough the past couple of games,” Scambia said. “I think I was anxious and trying to do too much. I talked with coach and wanted to control myself a little more. I finally put it together and had a good game.”
Seniors Kevin Miller and Joe Tomasulo each added RBIs for Somers.
Beacon (7-2) had a tough game on both sides of the ball as they struggled to get men in scoring position and made some costly errors that allowed Somers to score. The Bulldogs' one bright spot of the game came in the sixth inning when Billy Sablinki took Genovese deep to right for a solo home-run to put Beacon on the board.
“We’re talented enough that if we have a sub-par game in one of the facets, maybe we can overcome that,” said Beacon coach Bob Atwell. “But when you play poor defensively, throw up one run and then don’t throw strikes or make good pitches, you can’t overcome all that. It’s baseball, we’re going to have to bounce back. You play enough of them and you’re going to have a down game once in a while. We had ours today and hopefully we can come back from it.”
Game Notes: Joe Esposito, Sam Bird, Dan Ishoo, Kevin Miller, Mike Millman, Dylan McGuire, Steven Weinberger, Tommy Azottola, Chris Arita and Joe Tomasulo were the 10 seniors honored before the game.
Follow Jordan Griffith on Twitter @MSGV_Jgriffith
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