John Jay falls to Pearl River’s small-ball attack

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - After falling behind 3-0 in the second inning, John Jay battled back to tie the game in the fifth. With momentum shifting, Jacob Storch took the mound in the sixth and, according to coach Ted Lawrence, pitched well enough to escape trouble. Not a single ball left the infield — yet somehow Pearl River erupted for seven runs.

Four bunts, one walk, and a series of perfectly placed ground balls left Lawrence stunned.

“I’ve coached for 35 years. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “Every little ground ball they put in play — including the bunts — just found a place. We couldn’t make a play.”

The Wolves’ season came to an end with a 10-3 first-round playoff loss.

The game began in unusual fashion. Storch allowed a single and a walk in the first inning but still faced the minimum. He picked off TJ Gerondel after the infield hit, and catcher Luca Maiuolo threw out Brendan Ryan — running for Connor Buckley — attempting to steal.

John Jay’s first inning was quieter. Aside from a one-out walk to Jackson Moreo, Buckley retired the side with two strikeouts and a groundout.

Storch settled in during the second, working around a two-out infield single with two strikeouts and a ground ball to shortstop Luke Fisch.

Buckley answered with an even stronger inning, striking out the side in the bottom half.

Then came the turning point.

Shane Wooster opened the third with a bloop single, and Chris Oliva followed with a sacrifice bunt. Storch fielded it cleanly but dropped the ball and then overthrew first base, allowing runners to advance to second and third.

Drew Wooster capitalized with a two-run double. After a sacrifice bunt moved him to third, Luis Gomez drove him home with a fly ball to right field, giving Pearl River a 3-0 lead.

Still, Storch regrouped quickly. Pearl River hit three balls into the air in the next inning, but all were tracked down by the John Jay outfield. Storch followed with a strikeout and two groundouts to third baseman Amogha Bhat.

With time running short, the Wolves leaned on the resilience that had defined their season.

“All year,” said Storch, “we’ve been able to come back and never give up.”

Moreo sparked the rally with a double down the third-base line. One out later, Ben Kalish singled to left to put John Jay on the board. Fisch then singled Kalish to third, and Maiuolo followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Re-energized, Storch kept Pearl River off the board in the fifth. Bhat made two strong plays at third, and Aidan Chernick handled a fly ball cleanly in the outfield.

Then John Jay finally pulled even.

Chernick was hit by a pitch with one out, and Moreo advanced him with a ground ball. Storch followed with a single up the middle to tie the game at 3-3.

But the deadlock lasted only moments.

A ground ball to third began a disastrous sixth inning for the Wolves. Bhat’s throw sailed high, allowing Buckley to reach safely. Ryan then stole two bases before Pearl River unleashed a relentless bunt attack.

Jack Wooster’s bunt slipped past Storch to bring home the go-ahead run. Danny Fitzgerald followed with another bunt that popped over Storch’s head and dropped in front of Nate Summer for another RBI.

Then came a pair of slow rollers from Brendan Buckley and Shane Wooster that narrowly eluded Fisch and Bhat.

Suddenly, it was 6-3.

Pearl River kept the pressure on. Storch fielded another bunt along the third-base line but pulled Eli Tubbs off first base with the throw. With the bases loaded, Drew Wooster drew a walk to extend the lead.

John Jay finally recorded an out on a bunt up the first-base line, but two more runs still crossed the plate. Another high-hopping grounder to Bhat capped the seven-run inning and pushed the score to 10-3.

Lawrence said Pearl River’s strategy came as no surprise.

“We knew coming in they were going to do that,” he said. “We practiced all day yesterday — suicide squeezes, safety squeezes, first-and-second situations, second-and-third situations. But you can’t control where it’s being bunted.”

Aside from putting a couple runners on in the bottom of the sixth, John Jay could not recover.

Still, Lawrence remained proud of the way his team responded throughout the game and throughout the season.

“I loved it,” he said of the comeback effort. “That was us all year. The will to win.”

Though the season ended sooner than the Wolves hoped, Lawrence said the game offered one final lesson for his players.

“They learned that anything is possible,” he said.