Rye Neck’s baseball team won the League title with a 20-2 record and flew through the first two post-season games.
By Melanie Cane
Rye Neck’s baseball team won the League title with a 20-2 record and flew through the first two post-season games, which, due to rain delays, were on successive days.
Behind the pitching of junior starter Matt Franks, the Panthers defeated Irvington, 4-0, on May 30 at home.
In a semi-final playoff game against Pleasantville the next day, junior starter Ryan Aquino pitched a shutout, allowing only four hits. Thomas Pipolo led off the fourth inning with a single, starting a Rye Neck rally that included hits by Matt Garcia, Matt Franks, and Aquino, resulting in three runs. The Panthers added two more runs in the fifth on a single by Garcia and a balk. Chris Pennell got the final RBI for a 6-0 victory.
Unfortunately, Rye Neck came up short in the Class B Championship game on June 1 against sixth-seeded Ardsley at Provident Park, Ramapo. Their pitching and hitting fell short, as they could only eke out one hit during the 4-1 loss.