Long Island Road Warriors Hang On, Force Deciding Game Three Against Riverhead Tomcats In HCBL Championship Series

Trailing by six runs at 11-5 heading in to the top of the ninth inning of game two of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League's Championship series on Tuesday at Southampton High School, the Riverhead Tomcats rallied for five runs and had the tying run on first base, threatening to make an improbable comeback and sweep the Long Island Road Warriors for their first ever league title.

Long Island's Brandon LaManna (New Haven), who started the inning on the mound, didn't allow that to happen though. He struck out Tomcat Miles Kelly (Rutgers) to end the threat and force a third and decisive game three, which will be played Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton at 4 p.m.

After winning the first game of the series, 8-2, on Monday, the Tomcats set the tone for Tuesday's game when Luke Oliphant (UMass-Amherst) stole home to put them up 1-0. Eric Roubal's (Queens College) three-run home run in the bottom of the second gave the Road Warriors their first lead of the game, 3-1; Roubal went 3 for 5 at the plate with two runs and four RBIs in the victory.

In a game that featured a number of rallies, Riverhead quickly retook the lead in the top of the third with three runs of its own, which went unanswered until the fifth, when Long Island broke out for seven runs to take a 10-4 lead. After Matt Daller (Rhode Island) scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-5 in the sixth, Matt Codispoti (Albany) drove in Pat Lagravinese (Albany) on a sacrifice fly to provide the Warriors with their 11th run, which wound up being the winning tally after Riverhead's comeback effort in the ninth.