By Joseph Staszewski
Benjamin Cardozo isn’t your traditional championship contender.
This isn’t a hungry group of seven or eight seniors competing to cap their baseball careers with a title. Instead, it’s an eclectic mix of upper and underclassmen playing better than anyone could have foreseen in a league where senior-laden and experienced teams usually take home the crown.
Other clubs around the PSAL have more talent and more high-profile individuals, but the Judges have always believed in what their collection of players or “synergy” could accomplish. It’s been this group’s buzzword since Day One.
“All of the parts are strong, but when we are together, we can’t be beat,” Cardozo Coach Ron Gorecki said.
The sixth-seeded Judges hope that statement holds up when they take on No. 4 Tottenville next Thursday at Yankee Stadium in the Class A baseball title game. It has for now. Cardozo beat No. 3 and defending champion Telecommunications in the quarterfinals and came back from a game down to top No. 2 George Washington in the best of three semifinal series.
The Judges’ senior stars were the driving force. Centerfielder Chris Campbell delivered a big, two-run double in Game 2 to put Cardozo ahead for good. Keith Rogers allowed just one run over six innings of work on the mound in Game 3, twice escaping bases-loaded jams. But none of that would have mattered if the team’s underclassmen hadn’t played well beyond their years.
Freshman Isaiah Mirabel, a catcher, asked for the ball and pitched to the end of Game 2 by escaping a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the seventh. Aldwin Corona, also a freshman, got the final outs of Game 3. Sophomore second baseman Noah Cabrera demonstrated flawless defense in key moments at his position in the clincher.
“I haven’t seen anything like this in a long time,” said Gorecki, who has been coaching baseball for more than 40 years.
Despite all this, Cardozo hasn’t exactly been a lovable underdog during its run because of people around the sport’s ill feelings for the eccentric Gorecki.
He rubs people the wrong way by how he pontificates about how he runs his program. Most recently Cardozo failed to play its quarterfinal game on its scheduled date because Gorecki deemed the field “unsafe” but did nothing to help improve the conditions.
Say and think what you like about him, but right now the Judges deserve your support and appreciation for what they have done and what they still could accomplish.
Cardozo has now gone farther than any team at the school in more than two decades and could bring a city title back to Queens. It will do so because the Judges have put egos aside and trusted their talent.
“We have had better players for the past two, three years, and we were never able to make it as far because we never worked together,” Rogers said. “This is one of the best teams we’ve had in a long time because they work together and they have the talent.”
