May 20 was an historic day for Rye Country Day School sports. For the first time ever, the Wildcats not only made it into all three New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association tournament finals contested at Manhattanville College…they swept the board!

By Mitch Silver

May 20 was an historic day for Rye Country Day School sports. For the first time ever, the Wildcats not only made it into all three New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association tournament finals contested at Manhattanville College…they swept the board!

The baseball team, as well as the Boys’ and Girls’ lacrosse teams, were seeded number one in the private school tournament. The 16-5 hardball team caught a major break when Hackley School ousted four-time NYSAIS champions Poly Prep in the quarterfinals, 5-3. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, the Wildcats were winning low-scoring games. They eliminated Horace Mann by 2-1 in the quarters and Berkeley Carroll 2-0 in the semis on the good right arm of sophomore Enzo Stefanoni.

Two days later, with Hackley having already plated a couple of runs in the championship tilt, coaches John Calandros and Michael Pollak rolled the dice and brought Stefanoni on in relief.

Coach Pollak supplied the backstory to their decision: “Three months ago, on our spring training trip in Florida, Enzo made his first start of the season against Roy C. Ketcham High School, a perennial New York public school powerhouse (and the top seed in the Section 1 playoffs this spring). We instantly saw Enzo’s tremendous improvement from last year. His fastball had gained 10 miles an hour, and all of his pitches had improved dramatically. That’s when we knew for sure that we had a legitimate ace.”

In the title game, Stefanoni confirmed that description, and his coaches’ faith in him. He shut the door on Hackley on the mound and drove in Matt Webster with his bat to tie the game 2-2 in the fifth inning. It stayed tied through the end of regulation, and Stefanoni made short work of the Hornets in the top of the 8th.  

The Wildcats then caught another, even bigger break when Hackley ace George Santangelo reached his pitch count for the day and was pulled in the first extra frame. The Hornets’ bullpen wasn’t up to the task, walking senior co-captains Erik Hanson and Liam Dalton around yet another base on balls to junior first-sacker Billy Grossman. When freshman Ricky Levy earned the fourth and final free pass of the inning, Hanson came home and stomped on the plate like a guy reaching Go on a giant Monopoly board. The whole team followed, celebrating Rye Country Day’s first NYSAIS title since 2004.

Coach Pollak summed up the achievement: “What we did was out-tough Hackley. We did all the little things right, we came back from behind, and then we hung in there until, finally, our overall quality and depth won the day. They should be awfully proud.”