PLAYOFFS: Down Early, Cyclones Rally to Beat Bethpage, 11-9

In South Side's Conference A playoff elimination game against No. 10 Bethpage on Monday, the Cyclones found themselves down 5-1 to the Golden Eagles before they could blink.

Cyclones starter Evan Singer got touched for five runs in the first two innings, and it looked as if South Side's great season would come to a disappointing end. But Singer settled in after the second, and the comeback kids from South Side scored 10 unanswered runs en route to an 11-9 win over the Golden Eagles.

South Side now advances to a best-of-three series against Division that starts Wednesday.

"I told them we got a lot of game left," Head Coach Keith Lessuk said during a team huddle in the bottom of the second. "We know we can hit. I said we got to keep doing it, keep getting runners on, and we knew our offense would produce."

Down 5-1 in the second, South Side (13-6) loaded the bases with one out against Bethpage southpaw Joseph Schultheis. Matt Sollin (2-for-3, 2 RBIs) ripped a bases-clearing triple, but as David Hawley (2-for-2, 3 runs scored) rounded third, he tripped and the runner behind him, Joe Geraci, fell over him. They both scored, but umpires called Geraci out for passing Hawley on the base path.

That made it 5-3, but Bethpage protested the play, claiming that Hawley should have been sent back to third. Lessuk said he checked the rule book, and the umpires made the right call. "It will go to the board of umpires and they'll hear the argument and we'll see what happens, he said. "I looked in the rule book and according to what I read, they got it right."

James Howard (2-for-4, 4 RBIs) then ripped an RBI single that scored Sollin and cut Bethpage's lead to 5-4.

South Side loaded the bases again in the third off two walks and a single from Dylan Leary (2-for-3, RBI), but Bethpage called on lefty Chris Stein to clean up Schultheis's mess. After Joe Geraci (1-for-4, 2 RBIs)  hit a sacrifice fly that scored Leary and tied the game at 5, James Howard stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and a chance to blow the game open.

He did just that, connecting on a bases-clearing double to left center that gave the Cyclones an 8-5 lead. "They were throwing me curveballs all day," Howard said. "Every at bat started with a first pitch curve, so I went up there looking for one." 

South Side scored three more times in the fourth to give them an 11-5 lead. After not working a single base on balls in their 4-3 loss to Island Trees on Saturday, South Side batters worked seven walks against Bethpage pitchers. Eight of the nine batters combined for 13 hits, and seven different Cyclones scored runs in the win.

Singer, who threw 50 pitches in the first two innings and gave up five runs on five hits after six outs, hurled 43 pitches over his final three and allowed only one hit.

Closer Griffin Wagner relieved Singer in the sixth, and worked out of a bases-loaded jam, but gave up two runs. Up 11-7 in the seventh, Bethpage mounted another rally, scoring twice to cut South Side's lead to 11-9. With two outs and the game-tying run at second base, Wagner got shortstop Joey Walsh to fly out to center to the end the game.

Howard, a senior and one of the team's leaders, said he told teammates when they were down 5-1 that this playoff run wasn't ending on Monday.

"For the seniors, this could have been our last game," he said. "I told them we can't give up, keep going. I know we're a good team and we put up runs like no other, so I knew a 5-1 deficit wasn't something we couldn't overcome."

The first game of the three-game series will be on Wednesday at Barasch Field at 4:30 p.m.

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