German throws opening game strikeout masterpiece in the P.C. Rams’ home victory over Roosevelt April 1
April 3, 2024 at 10:33 p.m.
It will go down as one of Port Chester's greatest baseball games ever.
Happening on April Fools’ Day, it was a zip and let it rip kind of game.
And it was the Rams’ home opener.
It took place on what was designated as Port Chester Youth Baseball League (PCYBL) Day at Port Chester High School.
And what happened was no joke. In fact, it turned out to be a game for the ages.
Near no-hitter
Junior pitching ace Jordany German struck out 18 of 21 batters and didn't allow a base hit until there were two outs in the last inning—a slow bleeder of a ground ball to the right side that the sprinting rival base runner barely beat out—during the Rams’ 5-0 shutout of Roosevelt Monday, an April Fools’ Day to remember.
What made it even more memorable was that almost every Ram player was a former PCYBL All-Star playing key roles in the Port Chester win before a home crowd including up-and-coming current PCYBL players looking to become future Ram varsity players.
And the Rams weren’t fooling around.
Homers at home
Junior right fielder Billy Villanova hit a rare inside-the-park home run down the left field line in the first inning.
Senior first baseman Josh Virella became one of the handful of Ram sluggers to ever hit a home run over the distant left centerfield fence in the fourth inning and then came in as a relief pitcher to strike out the last batter to close out the game.
Sophomore shortstop Bryan Sachs got hit by a pitch, advanced two bases on a wild pick off throw, scored on a Villanova RBI fly out and came back a few innings later to double to the left field wall, moved to third base on a ground ball by sophomore designated hitter Erik Serano and came home on an RBI grounder by senior third baseman John (Tommy) Tomassetti.
Play of the game
Junior catcher Scott Sullivan gunned down a runner trying to steal second base and stroked a key base hit that led to a run shortly thereafter.
Senior centerfielder Ryan Gagnon got a clutch base hit up the middle as did eighth-grade wunderkind and second baseman Adam Castaneda who made the game's play of the day by dashing far to his left, backhanding the bouncing ball as it dribbled its way to right field and made an off-balance throw that nearly caught the sprinting Roosevelt batter at first base with two outs in the last inning, just missing preserving what would have been a German no-hitter.
Serano came in to play first base when Virella went to the mound to close out the game as a relief pitcher after German reached his pitch count limit in an overpowering game reminiscent of—depending on your vintage—Major League baseball pitching greats Bobby Feller, Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Garrett Cole or, locally, Blind Brook's Andrew (The Arm) Rogovic who struck out 19 of 21 batters in a playoff game against Pawling last year for the league champion Trojans.
It was the kind of game that whets the appetite for a possible pitching duel between German and Rogovic should the Rams go up against crosstown Blind Brook later in the season. Rogovic, a senior, is the only player in the Port Chester and Rye Brook area to sign an ultra-competitive athletic scholarship commitment to Division 1 Northeastern and is one of Westchester's top ranked pitchers while German is rated in the top 25.
The zip and the rip
The zip and let it rip part of the game represents another Port Chester historic moment.
You couldn't tell the Port Chester players without a score card because in another Port Chester first, the Rams didn't have their names on the back of their new blue jerseys. Instead, above their numbers, each player's uniform had the 10573 zip code.
Rams head coach Sean Burke, motivator extraordinaire, explained the reason why.
"We feel we don't just represent the school, our student body or ourselves, we represent the entire village, the entire Port Chester community, and we try to embody the best of Port Chester and its hard-working, get- the-job-done, blue collar, no silver spoon image without anybody handing us anything for nothing so we work hard for everything we get," Burke said after the game.
Making the home opener a game honoring the PCYBL was Burke's way of rebuilding a Port Chester tradition of winning baseball, restoring the Rams to their place as one of the area baseball powers, right up there with Mamaroneck, Harrison, Arlington and Rye.
Burke, a former Mount Vernon All-Star base-stealing infielder who played college scholarship ball for Dominican where he was a Hall of Fame inductee, is trying to turn around a losing baseball culture hereabouts. He knows it takes time, but he is slowly doing it. His Rams won the school's first league championship in a quarter of a century a few seasons back. And they won their first Greater Hudson Valley Baseball League (GHVBL) Fall Championship this past season.
'Little Rascals' cast
Now he is shooting for another league title, maybe more, with a young, inexperienced team he thinks of as the Port Chester version of "The Little Rascals," that comedy film series of days gone by featuring adventurous neighborhood kids with a knack for getting improbable things done. Burke and his Rams get it done with a small ball approach--bunts, contact hitting, steals, solid defense and opportunistic offense.
And he is doing it with a team that revolves around starters like freshman left fielder Roy Morris and Castaneda, the first Middle Schooler ever called up to the varsity by Burke, sophomores such as Sachs and Serano, key juniors like Villanova, German and Sullivan (the catcher who is showing college scholarship promise) and three experienced seniors in Gagnon, Tomassetti and Virella.
They made up the leading players in the win over Roosevelt, a victory that had a special Port Chester flavor because Gary Sullivan (Scott's father and a leading Ram sports booster) was the onsite game announcer, introducing the players from both teams every time they came to bat, the Rams baseball Booster Club ran a refreshment stand by the Pergamo Field seating area for the fans on the third base side of the field and a local DJ played rock music throughout the game.
Virella joins elite company
When Virella homered over that distant outfield fence installed in 2017, he became one of the six Rams to ever accomplish that feat, joining Keyshawn Ellis (the first in 2017), A.J. Marini (2019) and Mike DeCrescenzo, Tony Roman and Tomassetti last year.
That added more Port Chester flavor to that win over Roosevelt because the game spilled over into a combination of the P.C. American dream melting pot tradition.
Because when Virella came in to close out the game for German as a relief pitcher, he hit the first batter he faced and threw two balls way off the plate to the second hitter. That's when German started shouting encouragement in Spanish from the bench, and you didn't need an interpreter to understand what he was saying: "Relax. Just throw the ball over the plate. They can't hit you." Virella nodded. And threw three fast balls right by the batter.
Game over
Now it's on to Arlington for the Rams’ next scheduled home game Thursday (4/4) at 4:30 p.m. with away games against Dobbs Ferry scheduled for Saturday (4/6) at 11 a.m. and Suffern set for Monday (4/8) at 4:45 p.m.
Burke knows the schedule maker has been kind so far with the Rams opening with what are called "gimme" games against opponents they figured to beat and did (East Ramapo and Roosevelt) with German winning both. But now comes the hard part with Virella, German and Sachs lined up to pitch the next three games against always tough Arlington and Suffern with small school power Dobbs Ferry a potential gimme. But win or lose, the results of those games should set the stage for what kind of season this is going to be for the local "Little Rascals."
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