Kennedy falls in semis

A bloop single with the bases loaded over a drawn-in infield helped top-seeded MacArthur knock off No. 6 Kennedy (11-12 overall) and sweep its best-of-three Nassau Class AA baseball semifinal matchup on May 25, 3-1.

"If the infield's at normal depth it's just a [pop] to the shortstop," Cougars coach Eric Passman said.

Bouncing back from a 13-1 defeat in Game 1 of the series just one day earlier, the Cougars showed they had a short memory by striking first in the second game. Junior Andrew Wood drove in sophomore Noah Shulman from second base with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the first inning, and the pitching of senior Robbie Stalzer made the lead hold up until the sixth inning. "[He] was phenomenal," Kennedy coach Eric Passman said. "That's what the MacArthur kids were saying after the game."

Cougars sophomore Justin Harrison was erased trying to score on junior Justin Leopold's fly out in the fifth, on a perfect strike to home plate by the right fielder, preventing Kennedy from extending its one-run lead.

"We had more than a shot, we were winning," Passman said of evening the series and hanging tough. "After getting blown out in game one, it would have been easy to mail it in."