Bridgehampton/Ross Baseball Drops Conference V Championship Game to Babylon

Bridgehampton senior Kris Vinski said his Killer Bees baseball team is taking a lot away from a 7-3 Conference V Championship loss to Class B’s Babylon on Saturday — things his Bridgehampton/Ross unit will use when it faces Chapel Field in the Class C regional final at Lorenz Field in Saugerties this Saturday, June 3.

“Playing an important game like that brings a level of nerves that a regular season game doesn’t — the feel of playing in a game of that caliber is huge,” said the starting lefthanded pitcher. “I think we need to carry this momentum into our next game, and I think just getting this experience is crucial to our success.”

That uneasiness got the best of the Killer Bees, as Babylon senior pitcher Joseph Hanson tossed a 1-2-3 top of the first at the Eastport-South Manor Athletic Complex on May 27 before driving in two runs off a double in the bottom of the inning to give Babylon (22-1) a 3-0 lead over Bridgehampton (11-10). Hanson struck out eight across six innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits. He also stole a base and went 3-for-3 with two RBIs, one run and one walk.

“I thought we played well,” Vinski said. “Obviously, they’re a really good team, but I think we did a good job minimizing the damage. It felt good playing a team like that and keeping it close.”

And the senior southpaw said he felt confident on the mound despite the runs scored. He’d kicked off the contest tossing one of his five strikeouts through six innings.

“I felt good out there,” Vinski said. “I felt like I was hitting my spots and making good pitches, but they battled — every guy in their lineup battled. Obviously with a team like that you can make very few mistakes because they will capitalize off of them.”

Babylon’s batters bounced back from a lot of first-pitch strikes to work full counts and find the holes. Ross freshman shortstop Tate Foard, who tossed to Bridgehampton senior first baseman Scott Vinski for the final out of the first, said his team did all it could to limit the damage, and thought his batters also battled in the box.

“Kris really did a good job of limiting their big bats, and I saw grinding at-bats from our whole lineup, which is something that separates teams that make playoff runs from the teams that don’t,” Foard said. “We were able to stay within striking distance almost the entire game, which is something that not many teams have done against Babylon this season.”

And the freshman was a part of that as the Killer Bees worked their way back into it, down 5-0 to start the top of the fourth. Scott Vinski chipped a shot up the middle, and Foard found a spot in left field before a Hanson balk advanced the runners.

“I’ve felt good all year,” Foard said. “But I feel that I’m now at a point that I’m able to play the game, from shortstop and hitting, in a way that I can make plays that can change the tide.”

Ross sophomore Shawn Gnyp hit a bases-clearing single to left that was dropped by the catcher at home, helping him take second base easily, and Ross senior Yudai Morikawa had his hit tipped by the pitcher to put runners on the corner before a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, but Bridgehampton couldn’t capitalize.

The Killer Bees got their bats on the balls the rest of the way through, though Babylon’s fielders made the plays. That is, until the bottom of the seventh. After Ross sophomore Alexi Kardaras walked and took second and third on wild pitches, his twin brother Ari sent an RBI-single down the left field line to help him home before the final two outs were recorded.

Bridgehampton was able to play on Saturday thanks to a 4-2 win over Class C county champion Port Jefferson (12-7), where Scott Vinski pitched a complete game, striking out eight and helping his own cause by breaking a 2-2 tie in the top of the seventh with a two-out, two-RBI single.

“As a team we focus on putting the ball in play, and to see us find success against good teams helps us build confidence and momentum as a team moving into the next game, which is important for us especially at this point in the season,” Kris Vinski said.

Bridgehampton will take on Chapel Field on Saturday at 4 p.m.

“I feel really good moving forward with this team,” Kris Vinski said. “We feel like we’re playing our best baseball right now, which was our goal all season long — to get better and better with each game so that by this point we are playing the best baseball we have played all season.”