Baseball: Moscot pitches Palisades past Banning in City playoffs

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Jonathan Moscot’s last pitch summed up his day on the mound.

Palisades’ ace right-hander took a deep breath, reared back and fired a fastball high. Banning’s Joel Romero swung and missed, Moscot pumped his fist and the Dolphins escaped with a 3-2 victory Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the City Section’s Championship Division playoffs.

Moscot (9-2) scattered seven hits through seven innings, with three strikeouts and two walks. Banning pulled to within a run in the fifth inning when Moscot balked to send Pilots’ outfielder Adrian Martinez home from third base. But with runners on the corners, Moscot induced a 5-4-3 double play to end Banning’s last serious threat. He also got strikeouts to end the second and fourth innings.

‘I knew I was going to get the ball because we had to win this game,’ Moscot said. ‘It really helped pitching with the lead most of the way. I got a little nervous after the balk but I was able to settle myself down and execute. I love being able to close games out.’

Moscot helped his own cause with his bat as well as his arm. He doubled off the center-field fence to drive in teammate Alex Meadow with the Dolphins’ first run in the bottom of the first inning. He doubled to right field with two outs in the fifth inning but was left stranded.

‘As a coach, you’re always trying to think an inning ahead so we were prepared for it,’ Palisades Coach Mike Voelkel said when asked if he ever considered lifting his starter. ‘When you pitch a complete game, there’s bound to be some rough spots along the way. Jon did a good job of minimizing the damage.’

-- Steve Galluzzo