Pujari shuts down Brewster

After losing at Brewster 11-3 on opening day two days earlier, Yorktown was looking for revenge when it hosted that same Brewster squad in its home opener on April 2 at Granite Knolls Park.

While the weather may have been dreary, the performance on the mound by Husker starter and senior captain Swaraaj Pujari, certainly was not.

Pujari stood out by throwing 4.2 innings, allowing no runs, and just one hit, while striking out five in the Huskers’ 10-0 five-inning victory over the Bears.

“We showed what kind of team we really are, to come back and bounce back from a hard loss like that,” Pujari said. “It shows the baseball that we love to play here.”

Pujari said his confidence came from the guys playing behind him.

“It was just coming out with confidence, knowing that I had my team behind me, to back me up when a ball was put in play,” Pujari said.

Staying in front of the Brewster hitters was the key to Pujari’s success according to Yorktown sixth-year coach C.J. Riefenhauser, a 2008 Mahopac graduate who pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays from 2014-15

“Biggest thing was he was getting ahead with his fastball,” Riefenhauser said. “When he pitches ahead, it opens up the strike zone a little bit and he can go at his own speed.”

Yorktown got the jump on the Bears by scoring five runs in the second to go up 5-0. The last of those two runs came on a single to center field by senior captain and left fielder Brandon Manchess (2-3, run, 4 RBI, double), a Fairleigh Dickinson University (Florham campus) commit.

Manchess said that “it was pretty big” to win the home opener.

“We lost to them 11-3 and the bats woke up in the fifth inning (3 runs) of that game and that wasn’t really good,” Manchess said. “So in this game, our bats woke up in the second inning.”

Manchess’ single drove in center fielder Tyler Galante (1-2, 2 runs, walk) and senior captain and shortstop Alex Ornstein (2-4, 2 runs, RBI, double), who was named All-Section and All-League last spring and has committed to play at SUNY Oneonta.

“I was thinking hard-ground ball scores them, line drive gets us two runs,” Manchess said.

Manchess also produced in the contest at Brewster, going 2-4, with 2 doubles, a run and an RBI.

Brewster threatened in the third, putting runners on first and third with two outs but Pujari was able to record a swinging strikeout to end the threat.

“I was in attack mode,” Pujari said. “I wanted to make sure that he didn’t get a bat on the ball, hit a ground ball, especially with the conditions out today, it would have been a tough play.”

Yorktown extended its lead to 9-0 in the fourth, highlighted by Manchess’ two-run double to right that scored Anthony Rella and Galante, followed by a two-run single from senior captain and third baseman Lirim Biberaj that drove in Ornstein and Manchess.

Biberaj is coming off an All-Section and All-League campaign from a year ago and is going to play next season at Mercy University.

In addition to the above, Liam O’Connor is also a senior captain for the Huskers.

Ornstein ended the game in the bottom of the fifth inning. With the infield in, his single drove home right fielder Xavier Guzman (2-2, 2 runs, RBI), who led off the fifth with a single, from third base, putting Yorktown up 10-0 to end the game by the 10-run rule.

“Biggest thing was the first game, we had opening jitters, we hit the ball in the air way too much,” Riefenhauser said. “Today we had a lot more line drives and ground balls that moved runners. We played better situational baseball.”

Catcher Travis Maher (1-2, run, walk) and designated hitter Chris Lanza (1-3, run) recorded hits for the Huskers as well. First baseman Luke Ciamei and second baseman Brayden Savino (run, stolen base) were also in the Huskers’ starting lineup with Michael Bruno and Dylan Muck contributing as courtesy runners for the Huskers.

Yorktown will next play at noon Saturday, April 4 at Dutchess County powerhouse Roy C. Ketcham.