Calise Leads Pearl River Baseball Past Nanuet

Senior Anthony Calise pitched another gem and hit a three-run homer in the fifth to lead Pearl River to an 8-0 victory at Nanuet Wednesday.

“Anthony has been around for a while,” said Nanuet coach Phil Carbone. “He’s a good, experienced pitcher who knows what he wants to do on the mound and has the stuff to do it.”

Nanuet pitcher Tom Rechenberger got off to a rough start, allowing a triple to Pirate’s lead off batter Kenta Umezaki that sparked a three-run rally in the top of the first inning. Rechenberger gathered his composure and retired the Pirates in order in the second inning.

Mike Scarinci came up to bat for the Pirates in the top of the third and drilled a line drive back at Rechenber that hit the pitcher’s right, throwing arm. Rechenberger fielded the ball and threw Scarinci out at first but that would be his last throw of the day.

“We were all concerned about Tom,” said Nanuet Coach Phil Carbone. “Losing Tom didn’t cost us the game. It didn’t matter who pitched or how well, we didn’t hit.” 

“Earlier in the year we were translating what we did in practice to game scenarios. Recently, we‘ve just been having a hard time translating what we do well in practice to the field.  It’s been a lack of execution."

The Pirates’ coaches were ready for the Nanuet batters after playing just a few days earlier and sent Calise to the mound with a plan.

“The coaches let me know going into today that Nanuet was a good fastball-hitting team,” said Calise. “So I just tried to work with my off-speed stuff and try to get outs. We got a lead so it gave me a little room for error in working with some of my other pitches.”

In the fifth inning, Calise came up to bat with two men up and a five-run lead. Calise bombed a home run over the left field wall and into the parking lot at Nanuet High School. The 3-run home run gave Calise four RBIs on the day and delivered the backbreaking blow to the Golden Knights.

The knockout may have come in the fifth but a damaging blow was landed when the Pirates put three on the board in the top of the first.

“It’s a goal of ours to score a run each inning and when we can put up a crooked number early it really helps,” said Pearl River Coach Bruce Miller. “We got out to an early lead and built on it later in the game. Anthony pitched well again and our defense was solid out there all day.”

Pirate Umezaki led the game off with a triple that really got the team going. Umezaki was promptly driven in by a lazy sacrifice fly and the Pirates were rolling.

“I’ve been struggling at the plate for the past couple of games,” Umezaki said. “I feel it’s really important for the lead off hitter to get things started and get on base. That’s all I’m usually looking for, a single, anything on base, but the triple was nice.”

Calise was obviously happy with the win after the game but remained focused on the rest of the season. Pearl River (10-4) has now won six in a row and seven of eight. Nanuet fell to 8-7 for the season.

“This was another nice league win but winning the league is our goal and we have two league games to win against Albertus next week,” Calise said.