Trojans roll to 9-1 win on Senior Night

By By Austin Bishop / EMG regional sports director
April 20, 2004
Andrew Siciliano just wishes Senior Day came more than just once in a career.
The senior Northeast Lauderdale second baseman celebrated in fine fashion on Monday night, as he belted his first career high school home run in his last regular-season game as a Trojan to spark NEL to a 9-1 win over visiting Southeast Lauderdale.
"I thought it was going to be a walk," Siciliano said. "He started me off 3-0, then there was a called strike and I fouled off one. The one I hit over was a little high. I just put the bat on it and it went over."
Siciliano's two-run homer came in the bottom of the fifth and helped the Trojans, now 19-8 on the season, expand their lead to 5-0.
Northeast struck for three runs in the bottom of the third, thanks to consecutive singles by Jeremy Barnacastle, Nathan Peden and Mark Snyder and ground out RBIs from Chris Oubre and Zane Cradic.
The Trojans added four more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Peden led off with a triple and scored on an infield single by Snyder. After a strikeout, Cradic drove in Snyder with a double and Cradic later scored on Siciliano's single to center. Jason Pritchett then doubled in Siciliano to cap the scoring for NEL.
Peden, Snyder and Siciliano had two hits each to lead the Trojans.
Three Northeast Lauderdale pitchers Cory Chance, Barnacastle and Pritchett combined to allow just two hits, while striking out five.
Chance, now 8-2 on the season, worked the first three innings, before Barnacastle pitched the next three.
Southeast Lauderdale did not have a hit until Bubba Shelby ripped a double down the left-field line with one out in the fourth inning.
The Tigers picked up their lone run in the top of the seventh when Steven Boyd reached on a fielder's choice and later scored on a groundout by Matt Smith.
Not only was Northeast Lauderdale using Monday's makeup game against Southeast Lauderdale as Senior Night, but the Trojans were tuning up for this weekend's Class 4A First-Round Playoff Tournament that will be played at NEL's Glynn Frazier Field beginning at 4 p.m. on Friday.
"We just wanted to keep on the same routine, playing a game early in the week and then having games on the weekend, and we accomplished what we wanted too," Nelson said. "We threw a lot of good strikes. We might not have hit the ball as well as we wanted to, but we did in spurts."
Northeast's first game in the tournament is at 7 p.m. on Friday against Vancleave.
D'Iberville and Florence open play in the three-day double-elimination event at 4 p.m.