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Sports

Forest Hills High School Baseball Suffers Loss To John Adams, 15-7

Nine-run sixth puts game out of reach as Rangers fall to 6-3 on the season.

Forest Hills had a promising start to the baseball season.  The Rangers (6-3) started out 6-0.  Then came close losses to Francis K. Lane, and Byrant high schools. The Rangers had hoped to break their losing slide against John Adams, one of the top teams in Queens. 

Forest Hills fought to a tie game until the sixth inning when Adams blew the game open with a 9 run frame.  Forest Hills lost 15-7.  Their head coach Marty Finkelstein, a 17 year veteran, was philosophical.  “This game will humble you,” said Finkelstein. “That’s baseball.”

The Hero: The entire side from John Adams put forth a Herculean effort. They ran the bases well, coaxed at least 8 walks off of Forest Hills pitching and constantly had the basses loaded.  Errant pitching cost Forest Hills, as two runs walked in. But the hero of the game was Jeffrey Valera, a junior power hitter for John Adams who slugged a three-run blast in deep right center field to put the game out of reach at 14-6 in the top of the sixth inning.

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For the Rangers, Jeffrey Naham had a first inning triple which plated two runs.

Turning Point: It was a tie game at 6 runs apiece heading into the top of the sixth inning, when Adams (8-0) scored 9 runs and busted the game wide open.  Frank Duffy was on the mound in relief of starting pitcher Brett Wisner.  Duffy got in a jam with the bases loaded and no outs, and walked two runs in. 

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A single then scored two more runs.  Then Valera hit a 3 run homer off of Robin Almonte, the Rangers’ second relief pitcher.  The Spartans tacked on another run for a 9 run inning to put the game out of reach.

Quotable: “You have to come back and play the next game,” said Finkelstein after the rout.

“The team didn’t bring it,” said Naham post-game.  “I’m confident we’ll make the playoffs,” said Naham, looking forward to future games.

Hitting star, Jeffrey Valera of Adams was all team after the win.  “It’s going great,” said Valera.  “We’re working together.  We have good chemistry.  We work as a team. We win together and we lose together.”

Bottom Line: Adams took advantage of Forest Hills’ errors, and errant pitching and some key hits to overcome a 4 run deficit and take a 6-4 lead.  When Forest Hills tied the game, the Spartans scored nine runs late in the game en route to the victory.

Box Score:

Teams 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Final

John Adams

0

0

4

2

0

9

0

15

Forest Hills

3

1

0

1

1

0

1

   7

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