MCSM Captures Two Spring Sports City Championships!!

The Spring sports season brought Manhattan Center two amazing and hard fought City Championships this year, one for Girls Varsity Softball and the other in Boys Tennis. Both teams worked their way through very successful regular seasons on their way to the playoffs for the City’s championship rounds.

The Girls Varsity Softball team, seeded fourth in the Division B tournament, batted aside Washington Irving in their opening playoff game by a score of 13 – 2, following that with a 19 – 1 shellacking of Brooklyn Tech, a nailbiting 9 – 8 victory over the HS for Construction, and an upset, 6 – 4 win over top-seeded Forest Hills HS. That win set the stage for what turned out to be a three-game playoff against #3 seed Flushing HS. The Lady Rams knocked off Flushing by a 14 – 4 score, but the Queens representatives came back as winners of the losers’ bracket to face MCSM again in the finals on June 8. That morning, the Flushing girls pulled out a come-from-behind, 6 – 5 win over MCSM, setting up the afternoon game taken by the Lady Rams, 11 – 4.

Junior Herminia Thabet had a simply awesome year, recording a .500 batting average for the season as well as pitching her way to a 14 – 0 record with a 2.57 ERA and 118 strikeouts in just 68 innings. She was backed up with an amazing offense led by Celia Soto (So., .700 BA, 7 Hrs), Thay Ling Moya (Sr., .636 BA), Jennifer Perez (Jr., .614 BA, 6 Hrs), Astrid Cruz (Jr., .576 BA, 1 HR), Tiffany Kennedy (Sr., .560 BA, 1 HR), Emeline Rivas (Sr., .563 BA, 3 Hrs), Jasmine Osorio (Sr., .548 BA, 1 HR), Nuris de la Cruz (Jr., .533 BA), Sirina Nagi, (Sr., .500 BA), and Ernestine Grant (Sr., .450 BA). The team’s eagle-eye award goes to Jr. Antoinette Nery who had four hits in ten official at bats while collecting an astonishing 18 bases on balls. Congratulations to Coach Randolph Cantor and the entire Lady Ram softball team.

The Boys Tennis under Coach Mitchell Weinfeld experienced equal drama in reaching their Division B City Championship. After successive dominating 5 – 0 playoff wins over Newtown and Dewitt Clinton, the MCSM team eked out a tough 3 –2 win over Jamaica HS to reach the City final showdown against William C. Bryant, played at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Erick Fuentes, playing at #1 Singles, opened the match with an easy 6 – 1, 6 – 3 victory over his Bryant opponent, giving MCSM a quick 1 – 0 match lead. At #2 Singles, Do Hyun Kim lost a hard fought 6 – 2, 2 – 6, 4 – 6 match to tie the match score, but Russell Bari, playing at #3 Singles, reclaimed the lead for MCSM with a 6 – 2, 6 – 1 demolition of his Bryant opponent. When Qi Guan and Jeremy Mathias at #1 Doubles fell 6 –2, 6 – 2 to Bryant, the stage was set the deciding match at #2 Doubles. Rahul Patel and Pias Malaker claimed the opening set at 6 – 0, dropped the second set 3 – 6, and finally came back to claim the third set at 6 – 3, giving MCSM a 3 – 2 match victory and the City’s B Division Tennis Championship. Congratulations to Coach Weinfeld and his players for a great season.