Baseball Rams open new spring season away with 'The Little Rascals' blowing out E. Ramapo
March 28, 2024 at 1:00 a.m.
It was the spring baseball season’s opening away game and it was written in chalk for the favored Port Chester Rams, chalk here being the horseracing term for an odds-on favorite—and the chalk came through.
The promising Rams team their coach calls "The Little Rascals" turned what had been a close game into a football-like 14-0 scoring romp against East Ramapo Monday (3/25).
Small ball approach
They did it with their small ball approach—timely hitting, solid pitching and cashing in on steals, balks, walks and wild throws.
And by living up to their new nickname that comes from that comedy series of days gone by involving kids who just got things done because they were too young to understand they weren't supposed to be able to accomplish what they did.
In this case that feat involved sophomore shortstop Bryan Sachs starting the game off with a walk, going to second base on a sacrifice bunt from junior Billy Villanova, stealing third base and coming home on a John (Tommy) Tomassetti base hit that scored the season's first run. The veteran senior third baseman fittingly knocked in the initial run during what he hopes will be a winning final season as the windup to his illustrious high school career.
Ace on the ball
The Rams didn't and couldn't have known it then, but that one run would have been enough to win the game because their ace Jordany German, the curve-balling transfer from the Dominican Republic, was virtually untouchable. German breezed through the Ramapo lineup like a gust of March wind, striking out 11 batters in four and two-thirds innings.
Head coach Sean Burke took his ace out to save his arm for another day after the Rams blew the game open with four runs in the fifth inning. The key hit came from a clutch double by sophomore Erik Serano, the Rams’ designated hitter (DH) for German.
Serano, the new DH, is now the super sub, part of the team's youth movement and one of the finds of the pre-season training camp. He will take over first base when slugger Josh Virella takes the mound as one of the Rams’ pitching Big 3 with German and Sachs.
Middle School wunderkind
One of the key "Little Rascals" turned out to be 8th grader Adam Castaneda, the first ever Middle Schooler called up to the varsity by Burke.
Castaneda, the second baseman, led the Rams by going three for four in his varsity debut, followed by junior catcher Scott Sullivan who had two hits, including a double that started the fifth inning rally. Villanova got a base hit. Virella blooped an infield single to load the bases. And Ramapo fell apart with the rival pitcher taking a walk on the wild side, uncorking a couple of wild pitches and walking in a few more runs as well.
"We're young, opportunistic, enthusiastic, play with a small ball approach and think we can play with anybody because we don't know what we cannot do, so we have a can-do attitude which is why the team reminds me of 'The Little Rascals,'" Burke said.
He was referring to the long-running Hal Roach short film series of the early 1930s involving mischievously adventurous neighborhood kids with names like Spanky, Stymie, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Waldo and more. By any other names, they just got things done with an unorthodox comic touch typical of Roach, who also produced the classic Laurel and Hardy comic films in days of yore.
The PCYBL All-Stars
While Burke doesn't have his team playing the game for laughs, he keeps his approach light, his sense of humor deflecting stress while masking his serious approach to building the Rams into a consistent winning team constructed around the above-mentioned players along with a solid outfield that includes sophomore Roy Morris, junior Billy Villanova and senior Ryan Gagnon.
That amounts to a virtual Port Chester Youth Baseball League All-Star Team made up of previous Little League standouts who look ready to come of age, "The Little Rascals" grown up now with a veteran mentor in Burke who knows how to mold a winner.
His Rams won the school's first league championship in a quarter of a century a few seasons back. They came into this season on the heels of winning the school's first ever Fall Hudson Valley Baseball League championship. And they are building to win now despite their comparative youth.
Chalk and underdog
The Rams are looking to chalk up wins in their upcoming games against beatable teams in Mount Vernon away Friday (3/29) and Roosevelt at home Monday (4/1), both at 4:30 p.m., with the latter an ultra-special game because it will involve a pre-game PCYBL clinic with the local youngsters on the field to welcome the varsity as they are introduced one by one during what has become a Ram tradition.
But while the Rams aren't looking ahead beyond those two games, the big test, the one in which they will not be the chalk but the underdog, comes Tuesday (4/2) away against Mamaroneck, a former state champion. And that will go a long way towards telling whether "The Little Rascals" are for real.
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