Pat Heber, Garden City cool off MacArthur
Pat Heber of Garden City pitches during a Nassau baseball game against host MacArthur on Monday. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Garden City took off at the perfect time last season. The Trojans didn’t stop winning until a Nassau championship and a Long Island championship had become their prize possessions.
This team is hoping to create a baseball sequel along those lines and emerge out of a deep Class A.
The Trojans opened their final regular-season series Monday by stopping Nassau A-I champ MacArthur’s nine-game winning streak and extending their own to four. Senior lefthander Pat Heber allowed just two earned runs and three hits and fanned 10 across seven innings in a 7-4 road victory.
“We’re not the strongest team in the conference, as people say, but we’re heating up right now,” Heber said. “The bats are getting going. The pitchers are throwing strikes. So we’re excited to make another playoff run.”
They’re now 12-5 overall and 12-4 in A-I.
“I like our group of boys,” Trojans coach Dave Izzo said. “They come; they work hard. We have some things we need to get better at. We hope to get hot at the right time like last year.”
MacArthur (15-2, 15-1) has been hot all year. Their starting pitching has been outstanding. Sophomore lefty Tyler Bonsignore hadn’t allowed a run in winning his five previous starts before the Trojans tagged him for four runs, three of them earned, and 10 hits in five innings.
“I feel good about our chances,” Generals coach Steve Costello said. “ . . . There are so many teams in the [Nassau] A classification, not just so many teams, but so many quality teams. We’re going to have to play really well.”
Bonsignore finally yielded his first run of the season in the third, although he wasn’t helped by the wind blowing out. Peter Halloran and Braden Soutar (three hits) delivered consecutive triples to center.
Garden City scored another in the fourth and made it 4-0 in the fifth on an RBI double by Heber and an error.
Heber (4-1) owned a no-hitter for 4 2⁄3 . Then Joe Thatcher doubled. MacArthur collected its other two hits and two runs in the inning.
But the Trojans made it 5-2 in the sixth and 7-2 in the seventh after a two-run triple by Jack Fanning. Heber surrendered two unearned runs before closing it out.
“We were sloppy, but they played well,” Costello said. “Their kid threw a really nice game.”
