CSI Baseball has clinched their third CUNYAC Championship title in four years and for the 8th installment of his “Mardy on the Mound” blog, CSI student-athlete and baseball pitcher James Mardikos gives you the inside scoop on what’s going on with team as they enjoy the glory and prepare for a call to the ECAC Championship Tournament.
Here, Mardy reminisces of past games in comparison to this year’s championship win:
How fun was that huh?
One of my favorite baseball games ever, even though it was a little before my time, was Game 7 of the 1991 World Series and as I sit here in my room actually watching the replay of it on MLB network, I couldn’t help but compare the parallels between that game ours.
The score (1-0) and innings (10) weren’t the only similarities…
Richie played the role of Jack Morris by being absolutely lights out for 10 innings; it was for sure one of the greatest pitching performances I’ve witnessed. Morris actually encountered a little bit of trouble in a couple innings, and looking back at it now, Richie really never ran into any serious trouble.
My favorite parallel was the Bottom of the 9th innings. The Twins began the inning with 1st and 2nd and no out and eventually had a runner on third with 1 out just like we did, but we all know that both times the visitors were able to escape.
But in both cases the Bottom of the 10th was the charm. The Freshman BO! Lewis played the role of Gene Larkin, that little known player who finally with a swing of the bat was able to make us the champs again.
I always said the run we made Freshman year to win the CUNY was the best, because we probably weren’t suppose to win it that year.
The way in which we did win it was just crazy. We blew a 9 run lead in the second game to John Jay and lost in extra innings making us have to come out of the losers bracket, so we had to play right after that and won a slop fest over Lehman (in which by the end of that game I was in the ER getting an X-Ray after getting laced with a line drive).
We had to then come back that Monday and beat John Jay twice for the title. We won the first game 3-2 with Patty outdueling John Massoni. The highlight of that game was of course the catch that Ray Valerio made in centerfield to save 2 runs in the 6th inning, full on extension in the left center gap to rob the kid.
Then in the second game we fell behind 6-0 after one inning, we clawed back, chipped away and won it 8-7 (even though I don’t think I could’ve made it anymore interesting in the 9th by getting out of the bases loaded jam I created lol).
That run was just such a roller coaster, it’ll always be the one I remember the most. But that game we played last Tuesday night was easily the best game I’ve ever been a part of. That celebration after Lewis got that hit was just unbelievable there was no better way for me, Gale, Tingos, Pontebb, and Mark to go out. Which was as CUNY champs for the third time in our four years.
Also, it was great to watch the girls win the CUNY yesterday too. We always alternated winning it over my time here and for us both to finally win it and celebrate together was great. Really hope they do their thing next week at Regionals… Good Luck!
