On this day 43 years ago, the baseball team executed a late inning rally to defeat John F. Kennedy high school, 5-3. The Blue and White got the scoring started early with a leadoff triple followed by a fielder’s choice. The Cougars struck right back with two runs in their half of the 1st, then tacked on another run in the 4th inning as a leadoff walk came back to hurt the Brook. Trailing 3-1 in the top of the 5th, the Blue and White chipped away at their deficit when Don Perrin began the inning with a walk, advanced to second on an error, and scored on a single by John Hanchett.

Still trailing entering the 7th and final inning, the Brookers staged a furious rally. The comeback began in the unlikeliest of ways as Jon Dahl grounded out to start the inning, the next batter reached on an error by the third baseman and Jim Furgiuele was hit by a pitch. With the tying run in scoring position, Alan Swanson flied out to center for the second out of the inning, leaving Stephen Clemens as the team’s last hope. With the game on the line Clemens drilled a 3-run home run to thrust the boys into the lead.

In the bottom half of the inning Rich Shimko took the mound in an attempt to complete his strong outing. He began the inning by inducing a groundout, but after surrendering consecutive walks, the ball was handed to Swanson to save the game. Swanson walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but with the winning run standing on first base the senior came up with a huge strikeout to secure the win. Shimko got the win with 9 strikeouts over 6.1 strong innings.

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