Ossining's Bats Shell O'Neill in Consolation Game

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. – Ossining rebounded from its loss to Briarcliff on Wednesday with a 15-0 drubbing of the O’Neill Raiders on Thursday in the consolation game of Briarcliff High School Varsity Baseball’s eighth annual Booster Club Tournament.

Rashawn Armstrong earned All-Tournament honors for the second year in a row and threw five shutout innings against the Raiders on a day when everything seemed to go right for the Pride.

“I was feeling good. I was getting good calls from my catcher and I had plenty of defense behind so it just helped me do what I had to do,” Armstrong said.

The offense certainly made Armstrong’s job easier. The Pride took a 6-0 lead into the sixth inning and then really blew the game open. Ossining scored seven runs in the sixth and two more in the top of the seventh with hit after hit. O’Neill committed several errors in those innings, as well, which prolonged the hit parade.

“It makes you just feel nice and relaxed on the mound. You don’t have to worry about anything,” Armstrong said of the offensive support. “That’s what I like to feel.”

Ossining Coach Bill Casey was pleased by the offensive explosion but added that his team is capable of putting up plenty of runs on any given day.

“Obviously, I’m not going to sit here and say we expect to score 15 runs a game. That’s ridiculous,” Casey said. “But we’ve returned 12, 13 seniors on our team and this team had some success last year.”

The Pride won the third-place game after losing a competitive game to Briarcliff on Wednesday in the first round. Casey said the team needed to win Thursday to show spirit and life after the loss.

“If we want to be one of the top teams in (Class) AA, you have to be able to bounce back from a tough loss,” Casey said. “We accept responsibility. We lost to a really great Briarcliff team yesterday. We didn’t play our best ball…We needed to play good baseball today. I think we played pretty clean.”

Armstrong echoed his coach’s sentiments.

“It was big. We need to prove that even though we did lose to Briarcliff, we’re still a team who’s going to compete,” Armstrong said. “Consolation round, final round or anything.”

 

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