The thing about league games between well-matched rivals is this; you can never count anyone out. New Rochelle found this out the hard way on Saturday, as the Huguenots saw host Mamaroneck battle back from a significant early deficit to come away with a 9-8 win in extra innings.
The Huguenots struck loudly in the top of the second inning, rallying for six runs. But the Tigers would not be denied, responding with two runs in the bottom half of the frame on a homer by Jordan Schindelman and chipping away at the New Rochelle lead to send the game into extra innings.
Graham Williams, who came on in relief in the eighth inning, picked up the win when he was able to loft a deep fly ball to left field with bases loaded in the eighth inning to bring in the decisive run on a sacrifice fly.
“Bases were loaded, I was just trying to make contact, put it in play, maybe get the run in on an era or a sac fly,” said Williams. “As soon as I hit it, I knew it had the distance.”
Cooper Berenblat, initially poised to close out the Saturday tilt, ended coming on in the second inning, putting together a multi-inning relief outing that was integral in keeping the Tigers in the game.
Berenblat said that given Mamaroneck’s tough recent stretch—the Tigers came into the game having suffered losses to RC Ketcham and Harrison—meant that the group was focused on getting back in the win column against a familiar opponent.
“We knew we needed to turn it around and we were saying this was the perfect game to do it,” said Berenblat. “It’s a league game and the perfect time for us to start our run to try and win a league title.”
With the win, Mamaroneck improved to 4-4-1 on the year, while the Huguenots dropped to 3-5. The two teams will face off again on April 24, after press time, at Davis Elementary School.
“This win definitely gave us confidence,” said Berenblat. “Now we need to continue to get better each game.”
