Schools
Cyclones Sweep Garden City Out of Playoffs
Red-hot South Side eliminates Trojans in Nassau A quarterfinals.
The red-hot South Side Cyclones swept the Garden City Trojans out of the Class A quarterfinals on Thursday with a 2-1 win behind a dominant performance by Cyclones ace Christian Colletti.
No. 3 seed South Side entered the playoff matchup on an 11-game win streak, including a a first-round playoff win over Bethpage.
On Wednesday, the Trojans cruised to an early 10-2 lead only to see it vanish when South Side exploded in a 12-run fifth inning to take a 1-0 series.
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Down 1-0 in the best of three series on Thursday, Garden City had its backs to the wall and needed an outstanding team effort to climb back in it.
Lefty Butler kept South Side off balance for seven innings with a biting curve and a good fastball. Showing the poise of a veteran, Butler’s best came in the top of the seventh as he worked out of a bases-loaded jam with only one out to give GC some hope for late heroics.
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The problem for Garden City was that they were facing a dominant Christian Colletti, the ace of the South Side staff.
UConn-bound Colletti held the Trojans hitless through six innings. His only blemish came in the first inning when Danny Muller reached first on a passed ball with two outs and came around to score on a throwing error. Once out of the first, Colletti got stronger as the game went on, fanning nine batters before turning the ball over to Louis Matarazzo for the save. The Trojans got their first hit in the bottom of the seventh, but couldn’t push the tying run across the plate.
South Side will play at Barasch at 4:30 p.m. Their opponent has yet to be determined.
