Hurricane Baseball Sweeps Islip To Keep Playoff Hopes Alive

How sweep it is.Things were looking pretty bleak for the Westhampton Beach baseball team going into its series last week with Islip. The Hurricanes had lost their last four games and their playoff chances were dwindling. The Buccaneers, meanwhile, came into the series 8-4 and jockeying with three other teams (Comsewogue, Rocky Point and Sayville) for first place in League VI.Westhampton Beach flipped the script, however, taking all three games for their first series win of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time; Westhampton Beach (5-7 League VI, 6-8 overall) is now back in the playoff hunt, needing to win four of its final six games to secure its third consecutive playoff berth.Westhampton Beach head coach Tom Hoare pointed to a few reasons his team was able to upset Islip in the series. He said having a full team for once helped—senior catcher Jeff Dalder missed the Comsewogue series, and senior Nick Einstman missed the Sayville series, both with illnesses—so Hoare didn’t have to put players out of position. The Hurricanes also got the bats going, scoring the most runs (18) in a series so far this season, and the defense had its best stretch of games as well.Hoare said Ryan Wagner’s pitching performance in the series opener on April 25 was what got things going in a positive direction. The junior pitched a two-hit, complete game shutout and struck out five while only throwing 75 pitches. And the offense and defense backed him up in the 7-0 win.The Canes returned home on April 27 for game two of the series, which ended up being a 10-inning affair. The game was tied, 2-2, going into the top of the eighth inning, where Islip scored three runs to take a 5-2 lead. Westhampton Beach struck back in the bottom of the inning, though, with Wagner tying the game on a bases-loaded walk, scoring Dalder.The game remained tied until the bottom of the 10th, when junior Matt Pesce walked on a 3-2, two-out count that scored junior Ben Osborne to win the game, 6-5. Pesce also pitched the final two scoreless innings to earn the win and Osborne went 6 for 6, which Hoare said has to be a new school record, though he couldn’t say definitively if it was or not. Osborne laced five singles and a double. Einstman went 3 for 6 with a home run and a double. Overall, the Canes collected 19 hits. Junior Sam Kaplan pitched the first seven innings of the game.Westhampton Beach clinched the sweep in the series finale in a 5-1 victory led by senior starting pitcher Nick Arpino, who threw a five-hit complete game with eight strikeouts. The Canes broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth with four runs. Dalder, Osborne, junior Jake Viera and senior Sebastian Naranjo each had two hits.The Canes began a three-game set with winless Amityville on Monday; game two of the series was Wednesday. Westhampton Beach will host the finale on Thursday, May 5, at 4:30 p.m. The final league series of the regular season is scheduled to begin Monday, May 9, when the Canes will be at Rocky Point at 4 p.m. The middle game of the series is Wednesday, May 11, at 4 p.m. at Westhampton Beach, with the last regular-season game scheduled for the following day back in Rocky Point at 4 p.m.