The Rye baseball team trailed by two runs in the bottom of the seventh Tuesday, just two outs away from suffering its first playoff loss. Facing an 0-2 count, Jamie Morris blasted a home run to center field, lifting the top-seeded Garnets to a 4-3 walk-off win over No. 3 Yorktown.
Although Rye scored just one run in the first six innings, the team had plenty of base runners. In the seventh, seniors Michael Talbott and Nolan Hutson reached first base on back-to-back errors, and Morris made the Huskers pay with a game-winning long ball.
“Just a great comeback win — a big hit by Jamie,” said Rye coach Mike Bruno. “We just tried to stay focused throughout the game. We always talk about grinding out at-bats … When he got that last at-bat, he had seen a lot of those pitches already, and he put a really good swing on it.”
Yorktown scored one run in each of the first two innings, while Rye’s first six batters sat down in order. In the third, the Garnets had three singles but were unable to get on the board. The next inning, four straight Rye batters got hits, with senior Harry Ellis driving in junior Luke Ontaneda to make it 2-1.
The Huskers added an insurance run in the top of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough to offset Morris’ three-run home run.
Rye advances to the section championship, needing just one win against Mahopac to claim the title on a neutral field at SUNY Purchase. Because the bracket is double-elimination, the second-seeded Wolf Pac would need to beat the Garnets Saturday, then again on Sunday, to pry the championship from their hands.
Last season, Rye was on the opposite end of the spectrum, needing to beat top-seeded Panas twice to win the section. The Garnets pulled it off, then advanced all the way to the Class A state semifinals. Now, they’ll aim to prevent Mahopac from doing the same in the Class AA section bracket.
“A lot of senior leadership, like I’ve said, we’ve been there before,” Bruno said of the section championship. “The players know that it’s never over until that last out.”
In the regular-season meeting against Mahopac, Rye won 6-5 on May 2. The Garnets trailed 5-2 before surging ahead with a four-run fifth inning.
Rye has won nine straight games for the second time this season. A 10th straight would be enough to claim a second consecutive section crown.
