With a pair of thrashings last Wednesday, the Dewitt Clinton Governor’s baseball and softball teams sent a message to the rest of their New York City competition: we will be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.

Defense the Key to Hot-Hitting Lady Govs

Let’s start with the Lady Governor’s softball team, which began last week on cruise control, having won all 12 of their regular season games, most of them high-scoring, double-digit victories that would make football teams blush.

Coach Daniel Smith, in his 12th year at the helm of Clinton softball, said, “This is the best hitting team I’ve ever coached. We can hit with anyone in the city.”

Indeed, his two hitting stars, Senior Mariela Castillo and Junior Jazcely Pagan, are ranked first and third, respectively, in hits in the city’s Public School Athletic League (PSAL).

In Wednesday’s 16-6 win over division rival Lehman, both hit home runs (Pagan’s was an inside-the-park job that showed off her speed, while Castillo’s moon shot to left-center nearly threatened traffic on Mosholu Parkway) during a seven-run barrage that mercifully ended the game in the 5th inning.

While the Lady Governors have proved they can bang with anyone, it’s their pitching and defense that may be their undoing.

Last Tuesday, the day before they administered the beating, Clinton lost to that same Lehman squad, 11-10, mostly due to the Lady Governor’s 11 errors.

Smith usually makes his players run a lap for each error the team makes, but after Tuesday’s loss, he didn’t have to force anyone to do anything. When he showed up at Clinton practice field after the loss, the players were already well into their 11 laps.

Smith called it “a great show of character.” He says this team is much more cohesive than last year’s, which was torn apart by jealously and infighting. That team lost badly in a first round playoff match against Bayside.

If they’re going to make it further this year, Smith says they need to focus on limiting fielding errors and improving their pitching.

Earlier in the year, the team’s best pitcher, Ashley Icaza was declared academically ineligible and was lost for the season. In her absence, Pagan and Sophomore Rosalee Flores have stepped up and carried the load. Flores, a lefty, is such a good fielder she fills in at third when Pagan is pitching. Lefties rarely play infield positions besides first base.

Once the team reaches the playoffs, runs will be harder to come by, Smith says, making pitching and defense the keys to a successful tournament run.

“Once you start facing that Staten Island pitching, it’s tough,” says Smith. Staten Island’s Totenville are defending PSAL champions and are undefeated in a tough division again this year.

Boys Try to Unseat a Powerhouse

Speaking of champions, perennial Bronx baseball powerhouse Monroe dominated the competition in such a way in 2006 that they only gave up one run during the entire playoff tournament.

The team that scored that run: the Dewitt Clinton Governors.

This year, the Governors are reloaded and aiming to build on that small but telling moral victory from last season, says Coach Robert Miller, who is also a gym teacher at Clinton.

Miller says Monroe is once again the team to beat, as they continue to replenish their talent year after year. “They’re a baseball factory,” Miller says.

Last year, Monroe had Danny Almonte, the pitcher best known for being two years overage while dominating Little League World Series competition six years ago. He similarly dominated PSAL competition last spring.

At 33-0 this year, Monroe is ranked 4th in the nation, according to one poll. And they have the city’s best pitcher again, Sophomore Dawin Rivas, who has yet to give up a run after 33 innings this year.

Still, while Monroe is performing similarly to last year, Miller says the Governors are improved.

The heart of the team is defense, Miller says. “We’re very good defensively – we don’t beat ourselves.”

That defense is led by senior catcher Jonathan Candelier who is getting looks from pro scouts because of his rocket arm and powerful and consistent bat.

Though he’s hitting .432, two of his teammates have better batting averages. Senior Johnelv Ortiz is hitting .487 and transfer Jean Ca Regalado is punishing the ball to the tune of a .526 average.

Miller says the biggest difference between this year and last year, however, is the pitching, led by stud junior Jose Aponte. Last year, Miller says, Aponte would come off the mound in tears because he couldn’t find the strike zone. This year, he’s throwing strikes and blowing hitters away in the process. His miniscule 1.08 earned run average to go along with 37 strikeouts and only seven walks are evidence of his dramatic improvement.

Last Wednesday, he simply overpowered the hitters from Alfred E. Smith in route to an easy 9-3 victory. The stocky Regalado contributed five runs batted in and Ortiz had three hits.

Chemistry-wise, Miller says he loves his team and affectionately calls them “The Happy Idiots,” a reference to the colorful 2004 Red Sox championship team who called themselves “a buncha idiots.”

Both Clinton teams enter the final week of the season with great hitting, good chemistry and building momentum. Both are prone to loud chatter in both Spanish and English. After the Lady Governor’s victory last Wednesday, the team started dancing around the infield and cheering loudly, as if they were sending a message to the rest of the city.

“Who’s house? C’s house! Who’s house? C’s house!”