Roslyn baseball ace Hayden Leiderman shuts down South Side

It’s been a special season thus far for the Roslyn baseball program. With equal measures of hitting pitching and defense, the Bulldogs have risen from obscurity to relevance. And on Tuesday, Roslyn continued its ascent.

The Bulldogs had a shot to loosen South Side’s stranglehold on first place in Nassau Conference III and ace Hayden Leiderman wasn’t going to let the opportunity get away. One could see it when the senior righthander struck out the side in order on 12 pitches in the first and then did it again in the second on 14 pitches.

Leiderman ended up taking a no-hitter into the seventh before the Cyclones’ Sean Britt broke it up with a single through the middle. Still he finished with a one-hit shutout as host Roslyn triumphed, 8-0, and handed South Side its first loss of the season.

Leiderman’s finished with one walk against 10 strikeouts and ended the game by picking off the runner he’d walked. And yet there was more to his performance. He had a run-scoring triple to right to key a two-run first inning, a run-scoring single to left in a four-run sixth inning and scored two runs. When he snared a line drive and wheeled to double off a runner on second it was the defensive play of the game.

Matt Fliegler and Jordan Zucker each had an RBI and Danny Rosman scored two runs for Roslyn (9-2). Righty TJ Maher allowed only one earned run through five innings for South Side (8-1), his solid pitching betrayed by four Cyclone errors.

"[Leiderman] is an amazing player — just totally aware of everything that's going on and what he has to do to help us win," Bulldogs coach Dan Freeman said. "And when he's on that mound, he is so locked in and just wants to perform."

"He knows how to attack a game," South Side coach Tom Smith said. "He's able to pitch at several different arm angles so he keeps batters off balance. They can’t pick up a direct angle to see the ball out of his hand and he’s got that crisp slider."

SEE PHOTOSPhotos: Roslyn vs. South Side baseball

Leiderman took a no-hitter into the sixth when he faced Manhasset in his last start and also ended up with a one-hit shutout. For the season he is 4-0 and has not allowed an earned run while striking out 33 in 28 innings.

"I’m trying to get better as the season goes on and so far this was better than the last and that was better than the one before it," Leiderman said. "I don’t really think about the chance at a no-hitter. I think about putting up another zero so we can win another game.

When the teams meet at South Side on Thursday, Roslyn will have a shot to take over first place. Both Freeman and Smith used the term "huge" to describe the significance of that game. But it doesn’t sound like that’s exactly where the Bulldogs’ goal lies.

"It would be a step, but we think we’re one of the best in the county and we’re out to prove it," Leiderman said. "We have places we hope to go."

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.