South rallies to sweep North

Moving into a higher conference and opening the baseball season against a successful cross-town rival didn’t look great on paper for Valley Stream South, but the Falcons, winners of just four conference games in 2015, came out swinging last week.

A four-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning propelled South to a 9-8 victory March 31 and completed a sweep of Valley Stream North in the Conference A-III opening series. Sophomore Chris Peralta tied the game with a two-run triple and scored the eventual winning run on an error. Sophomore Matt Doncell earned the win after pitching 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. 

“I think the confidence we gained from the first two games helped us come from behind to get the third one,” VSS coach Ken Ward said. “We came into the season expecting the middle of the order to hit. But the big thing in this series was the bottom of our order really came through.”

The Falcons trailed the finale by as much as 8-1. Junior Michael Charles hit a two-run triple in the bottom of the fourth to close the margin to 8-4, but he was left stranded with one out. In the fifth, a sacrifice fly by senior starting pitcher Noel Fernandez closed the gap to three. 

The sixth-inning rally started when Charles was hit by a pitch to lead off. He advanced to second on junior Luis Dono’s single and came around to score on junior Chris Hess’ single. Dono and Hess moved into scoring position on a wild pitch with two outs, then Peralta tripled both home to tie it.

“The first and third games could’ve went either way,” Ward said. 

Doncell retired North’s first two batters in the top of the seventh before things got interesting. Two walks brought the tying run into scoring position for the Spartans before a flyout to South junior Ozzie Trail in center ended it. 

The previous day saw Falcons’ ace Brian Donnelly pitch a gem, leading the way to a 10-4 home win. He retired 12 consecutive batters after allowing a triple and single to start the game as North took a 1-0 lead. “We held back Brian for Game 2 and he was excellent,” Ward said. “Three of the six hits he allowed came in the seventh inning.” 

Donnelly fanned eight and got all the support he would need in the bottom of the first when South scored four times. Dono’s two-run double highlighted the outburst.

In the season opener, Dono shut the door on a wild 15-12 victory by retiring the last seven North batters without allowing a hit. The Falcons led 7-1, but fell behind 11-8. Hess and sophomore Nick Hernandez, who had six stolen bases in the series, both went 3-for-4. Charles had two hits and knocked in three runs, and senior Jason Mercado added a pair of hits and scored twice.

The Falcons will try to stay hot this week against rebuilding Floral Park before embarking on their annual trip to Cooperstown on April 15-16.