If Major League Baseball draftees Jean Carlos Rodriguez and Fernando Frias ever make it to the big leagues, Shea Stadium will be gone by then. But the George Washington seniors will always have the memory of celebrating a city championship there.

On Friday, the same day the two sluggers were drafted, sixth-seed George Washington scored four runs in the top of the 11^th to defeat No. 1 James Madison, 4-0. It’s the first baseball title since 1997 for the Bronx School. 

Ironically, it was two other players who had the big hits. Junior Miguel Nunez looped a two-RBI single into centerfield with one out to break the scoreless tie. Three batters later, sophomore Mike Antonio singled up the middle to plate two more runs, as the Trojans batted around. Rodriguez reached on an infield single to lead off the inning and went to third when a long drive by Frias was dropped in the outfield. Both came around to score on Nunez’s single.  

“This feels really, really good,” said Rodriguez, a catcher, who earlier in the day was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 10^th round. “We’ve worked very hard. This whole day has been a dream come true.”

James Madison loaded the bases in the ninth inning and put its first two hitters on base in the 10^th, but the Knights failed to score off winning pitcher Xyruse Martinez. The sophomore relieved junior Francisco Rosado [pictured] to start the ninth inning. Rosado and Martinez combined to scatter five hits and strike out 13 batters.

“We had our chances,” James Madison coach Vincent Caiazza said. “It was two even teams, you can’t say one is better than the other. They just had the better of us tonight. there‘s nothing you can do about that. Both teams played a great game.”

Martinez froze sophomore Edward Lenahan on a called third strike to leave the bases loaded in the ninth. The Knights threatened again in the 10^th as freshman Joseph Hecker led off the inning with an infield single. Senior Kevin Laidlaw beat out a bunt to bring the Knights close to victory, but again Martinez wiggled out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning. 

“One mistake [in extra innings] is all it takes,” George Washington coach Steve Mandl said. “You don’t have the chance to redeem yourself in that situation, if something goes wrong. We knew we couldn‘t make a mistake there.”

Madison seniors Victor Cosme and Jonathan Farina were able to match zeros with their George Washington counterparts until the 11^th inning. Cosme went the first six and one-third, allowing four hits and striking out nine. Farina, who pitched the Knights into the championship game with a strong performance in the semifinals, held off the Trojans until the 11^th.

Madison captured the No. 1 seed by going undefeated in the regular season (16-0), the only A division team with such a record. George Washington was 15-1 during the regular season, more than enough to qualify for the playoffs for the 25^th consecutive year.

Extra Innings … The last time the PSAL A championship went into extra innings, Tottenville defeated Monroe in 2001 on a walk-off home run in the ninth inning by Sal Iacono … Frias was selected in the 50^th round by the Washington Nationals … Manny Ramirez, who played for Mandl at George Washington from 1988-1991, hit his 504^th career homerun on Saturday.