Lehman: 4 – Kennedy: 2
The Daily News recaps the season-ending showdown between Lehman and JFK: Lehman closed out the regular season with three stress-filled seven-inning battles that – the Lions hope – served as the perfect primer for the PSAL playoffs.
It started with a tough road test at perennial power Monroe last Tuesday. The Lions took advantage of a couple of Eagles miscues, got a stellar outing from righty Jeffrey Adames and left the Boynton Avenue field with a win, breaking Monroe’s six-season home winning streak.
Next, the Lions traveled to Kingsbridge to start a season-ending, two-game series with division rival JFK. Lehman lost its first game of the season when left fielder Bennie Fair hit a bases-loaded double to lift the Knights to a 4-2 win and bringing them to within one game of the division crown.
The next day’s showdown at Lehman loomed large.
They had already sewed up a high seed in the playoffs, but coach Adam Droz told the Lions that “this is the championship game; there is no tomorrow.”
Lefty Jose Pena took heed. He’d been struggling with control issues all season, starting against Stevenson in the opener when he walked three batters before being pulled in the second inning.
But Pena pulled it together against Kennedy, allowing one run over six innings.
Lehman struggled against Kennedy starter Willy Castillo – who allowed just two hits in just five innings – but took advantage of two Knights errors to scratch home two runs in the bottom of the fifth.
With a runner on third and two out, Castillo’s fastball glanced off catcher Sammy Dominquez’s glove, and Franklin Aviles took off from third when Castillo didn’t sprint to cover the plate. Aviles, pinch-running for Randy Adames, scored with ease.
“They exposed us on one play,” Kennedy coach Al Torres said. “It’s upsetting, but it’s part of the game.”
Jhossse Estrella walked on the passed ball, advanced to second when Jose Rivera was plunked on the helmet and scored when Justin Diaz’s ground ball got past Kennedy shortstop Roberto Cabral, giving Lehman a 2-0 lead.
Kennedy got one back in the top of the sixth on Benny Martinez’s RBI single, and the Knights then had runners on first and second with one out, but Jeffrey Adames got Frank Estevez to ground into a double play.
Adames came back out in the seventh and recorded two outs, but said he “was a little worried” when Victor Arias hit a deep drive to left center that looked like extra bases the moment it left the bat. Eury Garcia tracked it down a few feet in front of the fence, and Lehman locked down the division title and one of the top seeds in the PSAL playoffs. The PSAL seeding meeting was held on yesterday night.
Teams that make deep postseason runs often are the ones best equipped to handle pressure. Lehman certainly showed the mettle of a contender last week, making a case that it could become the first PSAL champion of the city’s new wooden-bat era.
A trip to KeySpan Park on Coney Island, site of the PSAL title game, rests on Lehman’s stellar pitching staff; the Lions will play without starter Whesley Lucena, who was 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA but became academically ineligible when report cards came out last week.
Pena said he has started to bounce back from earlier struggles and added that the staff can still be effective, especially if he can maintain the control he showed in the Lions’ division-clinching win.
“I was the only one struggling, and I know I turned the corner (on Thursday) and I can do it in the playoffs. Now, I think we can take the whole thing; I know we’re hungry,” Pena said. “We know we have a good chance this year, we all want to come home with a ring.”
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