Baseball Rams win Anthony Foust Tournament
May 3, 2024 at 5:32 p.m.
In baseball, one swing of the bat can change the outcome of a game, maybe even a season.
That swing came in the first inning of the Port Chester-sponsored Anthony Foust Memorial Baseball Tournament in the Rams’ first game of the multi-team tourney against Edgemont Saturday (4/27) at the high school.
John (Tommy) Tomassetti was hit by a pitch, Josh Virella followed with a base hit, both runners advanced on a balk, and then Scott Sullivan homered over the left field fence.
John Tomassetti is awarded MVP of the Foust Tournament after pitching the last two innings of the championship game against Blind Brook. He led the Rams with RBIs in both tournament games.By Lennon Anderson
Homer sets tone
And with that one swing, Sullivan gave the Rams a quick 3-0 lead that led to an eventual—and event filled—6-1 win that evened their record on the season to 5-5.
Sullivan's home run set the tone for the Rams to advance to the finals where they beat crosstown rival Blind Brook 10-5 later in the day with another home run—this one by Virella to almost the same spot as Sullivan's—the blast that helped Port Chester win the tournament.
"Those home runs were huge, just as winning the Foust Tournament was huge for us," Rams head coach Sean Burke said after the championship game.
It was "huge" for a couple of reasons, Burke explained.
Promising first step
Winning the Foust Tournament was one of the Rams’ goals at the start of the season.
So that's one goal down, two more to go.
The other two?
Winning the League and Sectional championships, which is much easier said than done.
But winning the Foust was an important first step because it upped the Rams’ record to 6-5, moving them over .500 after four straight wins and giving them the six wins that virtually guarantee them a spot in the upcoming playoffs.
The Ram All-Stars
It also leaves the Rams riding a high that includes Tomassetti, Virella and Bryan Sachs (the shortstop who pitched the Rams to the win over Blind Brook in the Foust finals) making the All-Tournament team. Tomassetti, the senior third baseman and quite possibly the Rams’ best hitter, was also named the Foust MVP after leading the Rams with RBIs in both tourney games.
But a lot had to happen before those All-Star Foust designations were handed out.
The way it went
In the first game tourney win over Edgemont, Virella was the starting pitcher, but he has been battling foot problems, so he exited after just two innings, moving to his regular position as first baseman while Sachs came in from shortstop to pitch. Sachs came through with nine strikeouts in five innings to nail down the win.
But it was the Rams’ small ball approach that also played a vital role throughout.
That approach came into play in the second inning to be exact when freshman left fielder Roy Morris slapped a base bit, advanced all the way to third base on a sacrifice bunt by senior centerfielder Ryan Gagnon and scored on a base hit by Tomassetti. That upped the Rams’ lead to 4-0.
It was more small ball in the fifth with Gagnon and Sachs both walking, advancing to second and third on steals and scoring on another Tomassetti RBI base hit. And that was all the run support Sachs needed to pitch the Rams to the win.
Stage was set
That set the stage for what was supposed to be a pitcher's duel in the finals between Blind Brook's senior ace Andrew Rogovic and Port Chester's junior Dominican Republic transfer Jordany German, two of the best pitchers in ultra-competitive Section 1 with Rogovic throwing 95 miles per hour heat, being regularly on the radar of Major League Baseball scouts and winner of an athletic scholarship to Northeastern, and German currently leading the league in strikeouts and called Port Chester's "King of the Hill" by Burke, his coach.
Only the anticipated pitcher's duel never materialized. Because Rogovic has been nursing a blister on his pitching hand and played shortstop instead. And German pitched a solid but sub-par game by his standards that was nonetheless good enough for him to win with five strikeouts and six walks.
Small ball prevails
But again, it was the Rams’ small ball approach that prevailed.
This time around Port Chester opened the scoring with a Sullivan second inning walk, a base hit by Adam Castaneda (the first 8th grader to be called up to the varsity by Burke), a sacrifice bunt by junior right fielder Billy Villanova and an RBI base hit by Sachs in the second inning. Then Gagnon walked, the runners stole second and third base and Tomassetti got yet another RBI base hit. And the Rams were off and running.
In the fourth inning, Sachs doubled, Gagnon walked, both advanced on a passed ball and Sachs was out trying to steal home on a double steal that saw Rogovic cut off the throw on the steal and cut down the sliding Sachs at home plate by throwing a strike to the catcher from the shortstop position. But Gagnon wound up scoring anyway on a fly ball RBI by—you guessed it maybe—Tomassetti.
The Rams got another run in the fifth inning on a bunt single by Castaneda, a stolen base, and a hit-and-run RBI by Erick Serano who was promptly picked off. But Virella took the edge off that faux pas by belting a home run in the sixth inning that put the game away.
Mets-Yankees comparison
"It was like watching the local version of a game between the Mets (Blind Brook) and the Yankees (Port Chester) because the rivalry means a lot to the kids, many of whom have grown up either playing together or against one another," Burke said. "But the real rivalry is the Rams against White Plains because they are more like the Red Sox against us as the Yankees in league play."
That rivalry will come into play in the next few days because the Rams will be playing White Plains in a home-and-away series Friday (5/3) at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday (5/4) at 3 p.m. with Horace Greeley up next on Monday (5/6) away at 4:30 p.m.
The way the Rams swing the bats in those games could well have playoff seeding implications and could well help determine whether Port Chester has a legitimate shot at achieving its other two goals of League and Sectional championships.
The winning ingredients
The Rams have a pitching Big 3 in German, Sachs and Virella, a hard-throwing closer in Tomassetti, and power hitting in Tomassetti, Virella, Sullivan and Castaneda (all of whom have homered this season with Virella doing it twice). That and their small ball approach make them a contender built for the long haul in a playoff run despite being a relatively young and mostly inexperienced team.
But now that they have won the Foust Tournament, they know that one swing can change a game, maybe even a season.
And if they have done it once, maybe they can do it again. All it takes is a swing.
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