44°
MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y. Danny Crowe has spent countless hours with his father working on judging and catching fly balls. When the Crowe men are done with this part of their workout, the Dobbs Ferry senior and right fielder would close out with one more exercise.
My dad would always give me a few balls that I would have to dive for, said Crowe, who will attend Elon University in the fall and play baseball.
The added attention to making diving catches came into play Saturday. Crowe made the defensive play of the game in the fifth seeds 6-4 win over fourth-seeded Pleasantville in a Section 1 Class B Baseball Championship quarterfinal at Pace University.
The Panthers had runners on first and second with two outs, when Crowe raced toward the foul line and made a diving catch on a Matt Cecchetelli line drive. That capped the inning and saved two runs.
He was fouling off pitches in his previous at-bat, and he was late on them, so I was shading him toward the line, Crowe said. I saw the ball great off the bat and knew it was tailing toward the right-field line. I was going to do anything I could to catch it, including giving up my body to help the team.
Crowe made the catch and rolled into foul territory, leaving Cecchetelli and Pleasantville in disbelief.
That saved the game, winning pitcher Mike Boyle said. If anyone can make that catch, its Danny Crowe. I have seen him make catches like that before.
Pleasantville coach Bob Jordan agreed.
That would have broken it open for us, but he had a nice beat on it and made a really nice play, Jordan said.
Crowe, who had a two-run double in the third, closed out the fifth inning with that great catch. He would lead off the sixth inning with a walk, and come around to break the 3-3 tie on a Matt Fata infield single. Dobbs Ferry scored again in the inning to take a 5-3 lead.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Rivertowns and receive free news updates.
