Garden City baseball's brilliant season ends in state regional semifinal
Garden City lefthander Joe Carey winds up to pitch against Horseheads in the state baseball regional semifinals at Maine-Endwell High School on Tuesday. Credit: Ed Ramirez
Despite a valiant effort from senior lefthander Joe Carey, the Garden City baseball team’s strong season has come to an end.
The Trojans lost to Horseheads, the Section IV champions, 5-0, in the regional semifinal of the Class AA public school state tournament at Maine-Endwell High School in Endwell on Tuesday night.
Carey pitched well early to keep them in it, but he was outdueled by junior righthander Cooper Ball, who pitched a one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and three walks to send the Raiders (18-7) to the regional finals.
Carey struck out 10 over 5 ⅓ innings for Garden City, allowing five runs on seven hits and a walk. He allowed just two runs on four hits while striking out eight batters and walking none through the first four frames. Both runs came on a two-run home run by Horseheads senior designated hitter Dmitri Charlanow in the bottom of the second.
“I was just getting ahead, filling up the strike zone,” Carey said of his strong start.
However, Ball was impenetrable. Junior catcher Thomas Bacich had the Trojans’ only hit: a double to deep leftfield in the top of the second inning.
Ball doubled his own lead in the bottom of the fifth when he ripped a two-run double to left, making it 4-0. Charlanow provided the final margin when he drove in his third run of the game with an RBI single in the sixth.
“This was a really great season that we had, and I’m proud of every person on this team,” Carey said. “We had some tough series with some tough teams, we were down a lot and came back. We fought until the very end, and that’s all you can ask for.”
The loss brings a solid year to an end for Garden City (23-8). The Trojans won the Nassau Conference AA-II title with a 14-1 conference record before securing an at-large bid to the state tournament by becoming Nassau Class AA runners-up.
“I’m incredibly proud of this group,” Garden City coach Dave Izzo said. “We knew this was not just a good group of baseball players, but a good group of kids who we trust. It’s sad right now, because we know the work these guys put in. We had eight sophomores on this team … and I think this experience will definitely help these guys down the road.”
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
