5 INNINGS Madison 13 Midwood 1
Vinny Caiazza couldn’t put his finger on it before his team’s game yesterday, but something was bothering him.
“I don’t know what it is this year,” the Madison head coach said as his squad warmed up to play Midwood. “We’re just not playing as well as we could be. I know we could be doing things better.”
After watching his Knights beat Midwood 13-1 in five innings on the Hornets’ home field, Caiazza seemed to come to a realization.
“Maybe I was spoiled last year,” he said. “Then, we caught people by surprise. No one expected much from us. Now, we’re steady and everyone expects us to do well.”
That must be it, because Madison (16-2, 5-0 in PSAL Brooklyn II-A) looked pretty good in the win over divisonal foe Midwood (9-4, 4-4). Nevertheless, Caiazza was right. Despite the lopsided score, Madison could have won by more.
The Knights collected 13 hits, but really didn’t pound the ball as much as they have at other parts of the season. Offensive stalwarts Tommy Bennett and Anthony Delfaus each had just one hit and Adam Esposito, who has been the cleanup hitter, was used only as a pinch hitter. As usual, no one player particularly stood out, a trait that the coach likes.
“Nobody is spectacular,” Caiazza said. “We just have a lot of good players.”
That was true of last year’s team, as well. And that squad was good enough to reach the PSAL semifinals, where it lost to Tottenville. Caiazza, in fact, is concerned that the success of 2000 has hindered this team.
“Sometimes, I think the guys need to get beat just to wake them up,” Caiazza said. “To get them fired up.”
But the players feel that the 7-2 loss last year to Tottenville will be enough to spark them through all of this year.
“That was a tough loss,” said senior captain Robert Papandrea, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a pair of RBIs yesterday. “We still have the taste of that and it motivates us. We talk about that game all the time.
“We’re definitely hungrier this season,” Papandrea said. “As good as we were last year, we want to be better. We want to take it all.”
At least one teammate is confident they can.
“When we get up for games, I think we’re unbeatable,” said junior Peter Kessler, who added two hits. “When we’re ready to play, we don’t make mistakes and that makes us as good as anyone.”
The Knights certainly looked like potential champions yesterday, even if they got some help from Midwood, which made six errors.
“We played atrocious baseball,” Midwood head coach John Sce said. “I’m disgusted. We’ve worked hard to get to games like this; games that mean something. This was very discouraging.”
As hard as Sce was on his own club, he was effusive in his praise for the Knights.
“They have a lot of experience,” Sce said of Madison, which has 13 seniors on its 20-man roster. “And they seem to play better every time I see them.”