His longtime buddies from the neighborhood needed him on the mound. Jose Cano gave it his best — with a boost from a mug of Hennessy.
He doesn’t usually pitch. He plays third base for his team in New Haven’s Puerto Rican Softball league. But the regular pitcher was late.
As Jose King watched the last strike go by, Cano started shouting.
“What a pitch! What a pitch!” he cried, jumping up and down as his teammates rushed to the mound to congratulate him.
With that final called strike, Cano’s Lloyd Street softball team put away the Domincanos at Criscuolo Park in Fair Haven Wednesday night. Final score: 18 to 17. The team also secured its spot in the playoffs on Wednesday night. As last year’s Puerto Rican Softball League champion, Lloyd Street is looking to defend its title. The team begins a five-game series against the Toita on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Sponsored by the Grand Cafe, the Lloyd team takes its name from the street where many of its members grew up. The players go way back; the guys have been together since they were teenagers. Their softball team has been around for about 15 years.
Lloyd Street was ahead the whole game, but it got close in the last inning when a two-run blast to right field brought the Dominicanos to within one run. After a pop out and a tag at first, there was only one out standing between Lloyd Street and the playoffs.
Jose King stepped to the plate. He watched three strikes go by, and the game was over.
After high-fiving with the Dominicanos, Lloyd Street huddled on the mound. “It’s a whole new season!” one player shouted as they joined hands in the middle.
Later the team celebrated with cold beers pulled from a cooler in the back of Cano’s SUV. Cano described the pre-game preparation that allowed him to pitch so well. “I had the Hennessy in me. I was ready to go,” he said. A last-minute spank on the butt from his wife was also key, Cano said.
The team was behind him the whole way, explained right-fielder Jesse Rodriguez (at right in photo), who was sidelined by an injury. “We just trusted him.”
Cano described how he felt when the final strike was called: “Awesome!”
“What a pitch! I felt like the Mets when they won the World Series in ’86!”
On the other side of the field, Dominicanos were sitting on the bleachers behind their bench. Jose King (at right in photo), who plays second base, was perched glumly near the bottom.
“He was the last out,” a teammate said, laughing.
“I didn’t like the ball,” King explained. Asked if the referee had made the wrong call, King was circumspect. “It was either way,” he said.
“It sucks,” King said, “but there’s always next year.”