On a windy day, Wednesday, April 3, when afternoon power outages were sporadic in some areas, Pine Bush’s baseball team tried to use the elements at home to blend with the physics of the game against FDR.

And Zachary Smith made that work when the lead-off hitter jumped on his second pitch, sending a line-drive home run as FDR’s left-fielder watched it sail high and fast over his head.

Pine Bush trailed 3-0, and Greg Bandura followed Smith’s homer with a two-run triple to tie it 3-3. Gunnar Meland and John Lopez added RBI singles in the first, and the Bushmen led 5-3 in the first after the game’s wild start.
Pine Bush carried its good fortune through the fifth inning, scoring five runs and leading 15-6.

A Bushmen collapse then changed everything, and FDR came back to win 16-15.

Tied 15-15 in the seventh inning, FDR drew a bases loaded walk that would score the eventual winning run after Pine Bush failed to tie it in the bottom the inning.

Pine Bush lost after collecting 14 hits with home runs by Smith, Joe Croce and Haakon Meland.

But the impressive offense was negated by a defense that committed eight errors and gave up 10 walks.

“You can’t win a baseball game,” said Matt Boffalo, Pine Bush’s coach, “giving up that many extra outs.”