The Post’s baseball beat writer, Zach Braziller, breaks down Friday’s third annual Mayor’s Cup PSAL-CHSAA all-star game at the College of Staten Island.
What: Mayor’s Cup PSAL vs. CHSAA all-star game
When: Friday, June 15 @ 7 p.m.
Where: College of Staten Island
Unlike the past two years of the inaugural Mayor’s Cup baseball all-star game, the PSAL will have its ‘A’ team ready to go Friday night.
Just one Class B participant – Martin Van Buren’s Edgar LeBron – made the cut. The PSAL, clearly, means business after absorbing lopsided defeats the last two years.
Grand Street Campus foursome Jose Cuas, Kevin Martir, Gerry Gonzalez and Ernesto Lopez, George Washington’s Nelson Rodriguez, Randy Rodriguez and Edwin Corniel and Tottenville’s Mike Sullivan and Vin Aiello will all be present, hoping to end the losing streak.
“We’re looking forward to winnng, to prove to [the Catholic league] we can hang,” said Martir, the Grand Street catcher who has signed with Maryland. “Most of the guys are pumped up. More people pay attention to the Catholic league from what I noticed. We’ll see Friday whose better and gets more bragging rights.”
Martir has played in both leagues, spending his first three years at Xaverian and this past season at Grand Street Campus. The CHSAA has better pitching, he said, but the PSAL the far better lineups.
“We want to get revenge. That would be awesome,” Bryant right-hander/second baseman Nick Alvarez said. “I want to be part of the first team to do it. We wall want to do it. It would be nice if we can take one this year.”
While the Catholic league will be without two of its better position players, Fordham Prep shortstop Andrew Velazquez (he’s starting his professional career with the Arizona Diamondbacks) and Archbishop Molloy third baseman Jonathan Ramon (personal matter) it will have its full complement of pitchers.
That includes St. Joseph by the Sea co-aces Brian Russell and Chris Falcone, Temple-bound Iona Prep right-hander Tim McCarthy and Xaverian flame-thrower Blaise Scerbo, who is headed to Seton Hall in the fall.
“That should help us out on Friday,” said Russell, the uncommitted Sea star who is considering Rhode Island, St. John’s and Manhattan College, among others. “We want to represent our league. I hope our pitching is a little better than their hitting. We got to keep [our winning streak] going as long as we can, show them that the Catholic league is where it’s at.”