By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
BATTERY PARK CITY — I.S. 289’s baseball team ended its season on a bittersweet note last weekend, placing second in the city, for what could end up being their last opportunity at a championship.
The Battery Park City middle schoolers won the Manhattan Borough championship and a city semi-final game before falling to I.S. 61 from Queens in a narrow 4-3 loss on Saturday.
“It was a heartbreaker,” said Theseus Roche, director of after-school programs at Manhattan Youth, which runs I.S. 289’s sports teams and other enrichment activities. “Still, it was an honorable finish.”
Adding to the heartbreak is the fact that I.S. 289’s Cougars may not get a chance to compete next year. The city slashed the $120,000 grant to Manhattan Youth, which funds all of I.S. 289’s after-school programs, including sports, theater and homework help.
Cougars baseball coach Blake Hepburn said his fledgling team worked especially hard because of the impending cut.
“They’re trying to make a statement: 'We need this,'” Hepburn said. “It’s almost as important as school — it gives them confidence.”
Hepburn credited the team’s strong performance to a trio of eighth-graders: Ledell Robinson, a center fielder and fast runner; Zachary Kraehling, the ace pitcher; and Jake Kiehl, the No. 2 pitcher and a lefty hitter.
During Saturday’s city championship game, at Lehman College, the Cougars took an early lead, scoring two runs in the top of the third inning and one in the top of the fourth.
But I.S. 61 fought back in the bottom of the fifth, scoring four runs to take the lead, and ultimately the game and the city title.
As the end of the school year approaches, Roche said Manhattan Youth hopes to avoid shutting down the baseball team, as well as all the other after-school programs at I.S. 289.
“We have to find a way to keep this alive,” Roche said.
