9 Photos
Senior starting pitcher Jack Dickinson pitched in and out of trouble on Friday, ultimately getting the victory after the Bonackers' late rally resulted in a 9-1 win. DREW BUDD
East Hampton shortstop Hudson Meyer tries to tag out a Comsewogue runner trying to steal second base on a close play. DREW BUDD
East Hampton second baseman Hunter Eberhart throws across his body to get an out a first after fielding a bouncing ball up the middle. DREW BUDD
East Hampton senior Jack Dickinson takes a pitch high and tight. DREW BUDD
East Hampton starting pitcher Jack Dickinson goes over a few things with his catcher Nico Horan-Puglia. DREW BUDD
Bonacker Hudson Meyer slides safely into third base. DREW BUDD
East Hampton third baseman Tyler Hansen fields a ground ball right over the bag and fires to first. DREW BUDD
East Hampton third baseman Tyler Hansen fires to first base after making a tough play with the ball hopping right over the bag. DREW BUDD
East Hampton's Egan Barzilay takes a pitch off his elbow. DREW BUDD
Thanks to taking two of three games from Comsewogue last week, the East Hampton baseball team is in a prime position to qualify for the Suffolk County Class A playoffs for the second year in a row.
Following a well-timed bye week this week, the Bonackers (8-7 in League VII) will face Eastport-South Manor in their final League VII three-game series of the regular season. As long as they win two of the three they will finish with a winning record and qualify for the postseason, one of the team’s main goals heading in to this spring. The other was to make a deep run, which head coach Vinny Alversa still thinks his team can do.
“Like most years, it’s been a roller coaster, but the boys are giving their best effort and I think we’re doing alright,” he said. “Luckily, we have a nice bye week coming up, and we’ll use that to get healthy. If we can get two of three from ESM, we’ll get in and from there it’ll be exciting. I think we can hang with any of these teams in the county. We beat Shoreham, we beat Sayville. I think we’re right there — we just need to get into the playoffs. It’ll be interesting.”
After losing the first game of the series, 3-2, at home to Comsewogue on April 24 on what Alversa said included a pair of very close plays at the plate that more or less decided the game, East Hampton took game two of the series, 10-6, at Comsewogue two days later to even it at a game apiece. Will Darrell hit a pair of home runs in the victory and Nico Horan-Puglia hit a two-run homer. Hunter Eberhart got the win in relief, shutting down the Comsewogue bats in the game’s last five innings.
That set up the rubber game of the series in East Hampton on Friday, and the Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the third inning, which could have been worse, but Bonac starting pitcher Jack Dickinson stranded a runner on third base. After East Hampton failed to scratch any runs across in the bottom of the third inning despite loading the bases with one out, Dickinson once again got himself out of a jam, stranding Comsewogue runners on second and third in the top of the fourth.
The Bonackers failed once again to score in the bottom of the fourth despite again loading the bases, but finally, they came through in the bottom of the fifth, exploding for eight runs and taking over the game completely. The lefty swinging Darrell tied the game on an opposite field double scoring Justin Prince from second base; Prince pinch ran for Carter Dickinson who led off the inning with a single. Kieran Conlon then gave East Hampton the lead on a two-run double to left center field, and the Bonackers poured it on from there. Carter Dickinson got his second base hit of the inning, a two-run single, that made it 7-1, then Egan Barzilay drove in the last run of the inning on a fielder’s choice.
Dickinson wound up striking out 10 in six innings of work, allowing just the one run on four hits.
“I’ve been struggling all season with command. That’s been my downfall, giving free passes to first base,” he said. “My slider and changeup were the best they’ve been all season, and with Comsewogue being good fastball hitters, it was super good to have those two pitches.
“We knew heading into that series and in that game that we needed to win the series in order to make playoffs possible and we were able to do it with a lot of help in the fifth inning,” Dickinson added. “I’m proud of the guys for not packing it in, but I think we knew we were going to win that game. It just came down to who was going to get the hits when they mattered most.”
Bye weeks in baseball are rare and typically happen when there are an odd number of teams in a league, such is the case this season. From a player’s perspective, Dickinson said he appreciates having a bye week this late in the season.
“Especially the position that we’re in, we can take the week to get healthy, assess some of the weaknesses in our opponents, assess some of our own weaknesses and go from there,” he said. “I think a bye week is super good for us, and we’re not going to use it as a week off. We definitely have some things that we need to work on and hopefully that can propel us to have a good week and to get better.”
At 6-6, ESM is still in the hunt for a playoff spot also and will be giving the Bonackers everything they can handle.
“I’m always talking to Coach [Henry] Meyer and Coach Alversa to see what they know, and, of course, we can always look up their stats, but from what Comsewogue said, with our pitching we should do just fine against ESM,” Dickinson said. “I also know a few guys on ESM, and they’re pretty young. But we believe we’re the better team, and as long as we play to our potential, there’s no reason we should lose that series. It’s in our hands now, and we’re ready to show it.”
