Coming into Friday afternoon’s tilt with Ossining, Mamaroneck was a team looking for its first win on the young season. But a tough first inning—and a late rally that fell just short—meant that the Tigers would have to wait just a little bit longer for a victory, as the team dropped a 5-3 ballgame against the Pride. Despite an uncharacteristic slow start, however, Tigers’ head coach Mike Chiapparelli remains confident that his team has the ability to turn things around in the coming weeks.
Defensive miscues served to put Mamaroneck in an early hole, as an error on a potential inning-ending double play ball led to the Pride scratching out three first-inning runs against Tigers starter Connor Jones. The Tigers would score one run in the bottom half of the frame on a single by Nate Perez, but the early deficit would help set the tone for the game.
“If we get that they, they don’t score and we get out of the first inning with a 1-0 lead,” said Chiapparelli. “If that’s the case, I don’t see [Ossining] winning this game.”
The Tigers buckled down after that first inning, however, as Chiapparelli called upon a series of relievers to patch together the game, something he said will be a necessity for the club this year. In total Mamaroneck used six pitchers on the day with only one—Nick Mirando—extending beyond an inning of work.
“It’s something we are going to have to do; we don’t really have that horse who is going to go out and give us five or six innings this year,” explained Chiapparelli. “And it almost worked today.”
Mirando—who came on in the fourth inning—breezed through his first two innings of work before errors again conspired to put the Tigers on their heels. The Pride would extend their lead to 5-1 in the sixth, as the Tigers failed to mount any credible scoring threats against Pride starter Bubba Sniffen after the first inning.
But Mamaroneck’s bats came alive in the bottom of the seventh, led by three straight two-out that helped the Tigers close the gap to 5-3 before Sniffen was able to close the door when Charlie Schuzman’s liner to right field was caught for the final out of the game.
“We had two guys came in off the bench and had hits, so that’s nice to see,” said Chiapparelli. “We hit the ball hard, line drives, the last one just didn’t fall.”
At 0-2 on the year, the Tigers will spend Spring Break competing in the HIT Tournament in South Carolina, where they will see some top-notch opposition that Chiapparelli feels will serve to get his team ready for the rest of the Section I schedule.
“We’re going to be playing some really good teams down there,” explained the head coach. “I hope that’s going to teach us how to play the game the right way.”
Contact: sports@hometwn.com
