Becil Comes Up Big, Again: Two-Run Homer Puts Aviators Into HCBL Championship Series

Greg Becil certainly has a flair for the dramatic.

For the second consecutive summer, Becil (Lehigh) found himself in a crucial point of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League’s semifinal series this past Thursday, July 27, with his Westhampton Aviators trailing by a run, 2-1, to the Southampton Breakers and the game-tying run on second base in the bottom of the seventh inning of the deciding third game. It was exactly one year ago when Becil came up to the plate in the exact same predicament — his team trailing, 2-1, in game three of the semis, then against the South Shore Clippers, again the tying run on second base. He came through then, hitting a base hit to right field that tied the game, eventually setting up the go-ahead run which put the Aviators into the HCBL Championship Series.

Last week, Becil was behind in the count, with a ball and two strikes, facing one of the league’s toughest pitchers in Southampton’s Jacob Pedersen (Adelphi), who leads the league in saves and had only allowed one earned run all summer. Becil belted a two-run home run over the fence in left center field to give Westhampton its first lead of the game, 3-2, and the eventual victory, putting the Aviators back into the Championship Series.

Westhampton hosted the Clippers in this year’s best-of-three series (see separate story).

“Just to start off, that team had been talking trash all series, and I wasn’t mad, but I definitely had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder out there,” Becil said, following the victory.

Becil actually struck out against Pedersen to end game two of the series in Southampton that the Breakers had won, 4-1, on July 26 to force a deciding third game after Westhampton took game one, 10-6, the day prior.

“Great pitcher, throws really hard. Very heavy fastball, strong slider,” Becil said of Pedersen. “He struck me out on a fastball [yesterday]. I assumed he was going back to it today.

“I can promise you I didn’t miss a single inch of that baseball,” he added. “It was probably one of the best swings I ever put on a ball in my entire life.”

Becil is one of many players who returned to Westhampton this summer looking to avenge last year’s loss to the Sag Harbor Whalers in the championship, which also went down to a game three and was lost late. The New York City product is happy the team is back in a spot to win another championship. Westhampton is one of the most successful franchises in league history, having reached the championship six of the last eight seasons and having advanced to the Championship Series eight times in its 14-year history.

“Feels great,” being back in the championship, Becil said. “I was here last year, it was a pretty heartbreaking final series. Me and the guys that came back, and even the [new] guys who were here this year, we’re blessed to continue to play and happy to go play in the championship.”

Southampton took the first lead in last week’s deciding game when Chad Pike (Oklahoma City) hit a sacrifice fly that scored Andrew Smith (St. Joseph’s - Long Island) in the top of the third. Two innings later, Ty Gilligan (Dominican) hit a groundout that scored Kenneth Franquiz (New Haven), who had reached on a base hit earlier, then stole second base.

A two-run lead in the friendly confines of Westhampton is never really safe, but Steven Hardiman (Bentley) was sharp for the Breakers, having allowed just one earned run through six innings of work. And when John Vitucci (Seton Hall) made a diving catch in center field on Ethan Guerra’s liner to end the bottom of the fifth, it had all the makings that the Breakers might actually pull off the low scoring affair.

But Tyler Smith (Saint Peters) — who hit the go-ahead and eventual game-winning sac fly in last year’s semifinal game three win after Becil tied it — put Westhampton on the board with a solo home run over the fence in left center field in the bottom of the sixth. That led to Becil’s heroics the very next inning.

Westhampton got some equally solid pitching from Eastport-South Manor High School graduate Jake DesLauriers (Hofstra), who kept the ball down in the zone all game leading to seven solid innings in which he only allowed two runs, one earned. He gave way to Ryan Miller (Norwich), the Westhampton Beach High School graduate and Speonk native who got himself in and out of trouble in the eighth inning, before Bruno Cergol (Finger Lakes CC) worked around a walk to strike out the side in the ninth and earn the save.

“They’re just a bunch of battlers,” Westhampton manager Jason Jacome said of his players. “This is our home field, we know how to score here. The long ball plays here, so we hit a couple and that was the difference.

“They’re all great players,” he added. “We’ve got a gifted group of guys, they all perform here day in and day out. I don’t think I’ve had anyone that’s had a bad season. They all just go out and play baseball and play hard.”

Southampton manager Rob Cafiero was proud of the way his team played, especially the last two games of the series when it held the lead for a majority of the time. Coming into the series, the Breakers hadn’t beaten the Aviators once this season, and Cafiero said most of the games probably weren’t even all that close.

“The last few games we had, that was the best we played all season,” he said. “They’re a great team. Jason’s a great coach. They had our number all year. We had good pitching the last few days. We played good defense and we had some good at bats out there.”

After the final out, Cafiero immediately met with his entire team, which dealt with numerous injuries throughout the season’s six weeks.

“We talked about from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, we just want them to improve as people and obviously improve as players. And if you look at what we did early in the year compared to what we did the last few games, I mean, it was a completely different team. So I’m proud of their efforts of what they gave us from the beginning of the season to the end.”

The Aviators will now battle it out for the league title with the Clippers who dispatched the Whalers in three games of their semifinal series. Jacome said his team will continue to do what it does best, which is hit the ball and Becil reiterated that thought.

“I know they have some really good arms, a couple we haven’t seen yet,” he said. “We’ll go in, play tough, play our game. We are missing a few of our great bats, but this team is nothing short of amazing and I know we’ll compete no matter what.”