Baseball: Ossining Enjoys Historic Campaign

The longer you wait for something the sweeter it is when you obtain it.

That was the case for the Ossining baseball squad as this past season it won its league for the first time in 26 years with a 9-1 league record in a season it was 14-9 overall in.

Those 14 victories included two postseason wins in the Section 1 Class AA tournament, a 2-1 triumph against Poughkeepsie and 9-8 victory versus John Jay-East Fishkill.

A key senior team leader for the Pride was all-section honorable mention left fielder Anthony Lafiandra, who was second on the team in RBI with 18.

Lafiandra said that he thought before the start of this season that the Pride had the potential to do something special. "This year the team showed a great amount of determination and drive during practice and on the field,” Lafiandra said. “To be a part of Ossining baseball history and winning a league title after a 26-year drought is an amazing thought. I hope this starts a new tradition in Ossining baseball, league championships."

Ossining coach Bill Casey, who completed his third year coaching the varsity, said there are two big reasons for the program’s gradual turnaround.

One he said was simply the players getting more familiar with him as a coach.

Another reason has been the players’ willingness to play baseball outside the high-school season. “Our team is pretty well spread out,” Casey said. “We have some kids on premier-travel teams that are going to play between 60 and 100 games this summer. They are traveling down to Georgia, Florida and all over the East Coast. We also have kids that are playing in a very strong WPBA league.”

Leading the way for the Pride was team MVP and All-Section player, center fielder/pitcher Rashawn Armstrong. He led the team in his junior campaign in batting average (.421), RBI (20) and home runs (3).

Casey said that Armstrong’s sweet swing resembles that of New York Yankees All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano and former Seattle great Ken Griffey Jr. “He’s a five-tool player, he’s a Division I college prospect, he has every skill that you can think of,” Casey said. “The only person that I think has to convince him how good he is, is himself. Everybody that watches him whether it’s someone in our program or the other team, knows how good this kid is.”

Also earning All-Section honors was senior pitcher Cameron Davidov. Davidov had a personal 5-1 record, with the Pride winning seven of the eight games he pitched in.

Davidov stood out especially when it counted the most, throwing a one-hitter against Poughkeepsie in Ossining’s out-bracket sectional victory. “He was our ace on the mound all season long,” Casey said. “Between him and Ryan Brackenrig, it gave us a great senior one-two pitching combination that gave us a great opportunity to win as many games as they pitched in.”

Brackenrig, who also played second base, was 4-2 on the mound, at the plate hit at a .333 clip, and earned all-league honors. Also earning all-league honors was junior third baseman/pitcher James Laitman, who hit .314 and on the mound was 2-0 with two saves.

All-section honorable mention honors went to senior catcher Rommel Gramonte, who was a defensive stud.

“He really made me look bad,” Casey said. “Going into the year, I thought that our catching would be a question mark but the way Rommel played, it was a strength.”

Earning all-league honorable mention honors besides Lafiandra was junior shortstop Matt Belitz, whose defense was as important to the team as Armstrong’s bat, according to Casey, and junior right fielder Zack Giusti.