STATEN ISLAND, NY- With their playoff standing already set as the wildcard, the Staten Island Yankees fell to Tri-City 11-2 in the regular season finale before a packed house of 5,969 at Richmond County Bank Ballpark Friday night.

With a couple of days before they host Game One against their bitter Verrazano rivals the Brooklyn Cyclones, Staten Island manager Mike Gillespie opted to use eight pitchers including starters Jason Stephens and Zach McAllister.

Stephens was a member of the 2005 championship team and has looked very sharp since returning from Tommy John surgery. He allowed two runs on four hits including back-to-back runscoring singles from Russell Dixon and Cat Everett to give the Valley Cats a 2-0 lead.

After the Bombers got their only pair of runs in the home first courtesy of sac flies off the bats of RBI leader Damon Sublett and recent Penn League Player of The Week Austin Krum, McAllister came in and got tagged for six runs (all earned) in just one and two thirds while walking three and uncorking a wild pitch.

The outing was far from pretty but didn’t really matter since he and his teammates knew that they’ll be facing a familiar opponent when the NY-Penn League playoffs begin this Sunday.

“They’re tough,” said the 2006 third round pick after the game at his locker. “We’ve played so many times. Whoever pitches well, makes less errors, has good D and timely hitting will win. One little play gets runs across.”

“We know what to expect. It’s good for the fans. It’s put up or shut up,” added third baseman Braedyn Pruitt who finished 1-for-3 winding up at .347 for the summer before Ryan Wehrle replaced him at the hot corner.

There’s no love lost between the two rivals. But the Staten Island side was keeping everything in perspective.

“We got to play our game. Pitch. Defense. Timely hits,” first baseman Chris Raber explained after an 0-for-2 night. “It’s playoffs. Either win or go home.”

Krum chose to focus on just reaching this point.

“After the break, we set ourselves a goal and met it to get to this position,” the center fielder stated after making a splendid diving catch to rob a Tri-City batter of a certain hit in one of the middle innings before they tacked on three off reliever Jacinto Gonell in the eighth to pad their victory.

“Anything can happen. It’s going to be fun. Two good teams. We split during the regular season. It should be a very good series,” Krum noted. Staten Island held the recent edge taking three of five this past week which got them even with Brooklyn with each ballclub winning seven of the 14 games.

Now, it’s all on the line.

“It’s pretty big. The first game will be huge. Especially since the next two are at their field,” right fielder Matt Morris said after an 0-for-4 night. “But it doesn’t matter if they’re our rivals. We just got to beat them.”

“It’ll be nice. A familiar setting against a team we’re familiar with,” middle relief specialist Ryan Zink pointed out as he stood next to a few teammates watching some of the Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Royals. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

Game One starter Ryan Pope seemed raring to go in anticipation of the big series against a club the Baby Bombers have eliminated in the first round each of the past two years en route to their third and fourth championships.

“I’m excited to get it going and ready to get the first win,” he said after charting pitches on his day off after getting some work in the previous night. “Brooklyn is a good team. It’s a test against them. We were 7-7 during the regular season. Now we’ll see who’s the best.”

Reliever Nick Peterson knows a little about what the postseason is like after having helped pitch last year’s club to a successful repeat as a setup man before closer Mark Melanchon slammed the door on Tri-City in a deciding Game Three last year.

“These guys are our biggest rival. It’s more exciting,” he explained after striking out the side for a scoreless fifth to finish his year without giving up a run in seven appearances while saving a pair and fanning 12 in eight innings.

Maybe the wise seasoned vet summed it up best:

“Nothing feels better than beating your rival.”
Notes: Leadoff hitter Justin Snyder finished two hits shy of a new franchise season mark behind former shortstop Eduardo Nunez whose 88 still are the most. Snyder’s double in the first however helped him overtake Wilmer Pino for the highest single season batting average. He finished at .335 which was nine points better than the former Penn-League All-Star second baseman from last year’s championship team. … Sublett’s sacrifice fly in the home first left hime one shy of matching Mitch Jones’ 2000 record of 54 RBI’s.

Get your playoff tix: Tickets are still available for Sunday’s home playoff game against division rival Brooklyn. They can be purchased at the box office or online at Ticketmaster. Start time for Game One against the Cyclones is just after 5 PM.