HCBL To Crown New Champion After Sag Harbor Whalers Are Eliminated by South Shore Clippers in Semis

The Sag Harbor Whalers’ quest for their second consecutive Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League Championship fell a little bit short last week.

After dropping the first game of the HBCL best-of-three semifinal series, 8-0, to the South Shore Clippers on July 25, the Whalers’ backs were up against the wall, facing elimination in game two the very next day. But they were able to avoid elimination with a 5-3 victory. In the third and deciding game on Thursday, July 27, Sag Harbor lost, 6-2. All three games were played at Sag Harbor’s Mashashimuet Park.

With the semifinal victory in hand, the Clippers advanced to the HCBL Championship Series against the top-seeded Westhampton Aviators, who won their semifinal series on their home field with a game three 3-2 victory over the Southampton Breakers, also played on July 27.

Finishing one game shy of reaching the championship for the second year in a row, Sag Harbor co-manager Jacob Tobin felt his team fought hard all summer long, it just fell short.

“It was a long summer, and we battled all year,” he said. “We just ran out of juice at the end.”

The Whalers fell behind, 2-0, early in last week’s deciding game three, thanks to a two-out, two-run double off the bat of Phil Krpata (St. Joseph’s-Long Island) in the top of the second inning. The Clippers added another run in the top of the fourth when Brady Steinert (Marist) scored on a wild pitch.

Sag Harbor got on the board in the bottom of the fourth after a one-out RBI double by Ethan Sarmiento (Montclair State), but it stranded a pair of runners on base after A.J. Lausten (St. John’s) grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. Milo Suarez (Dartmouth) brought the Whalers within one run of the Clippers’ lead in bottom of the fifth on a run-scoring single, but South Shore tacked on three more runs in the top of the sixth, the big blow a two-run double by Ryan Ferremi (Albany), to make a 6-2 lead which wound up being the final.

Sag Harbor had plenty of chances to score late in the game, none bigger than in the bottom of the eighth inning where it had runners on second and third base with nobody out. But Tucker Genovesi (Paul D. Camp) grounded out to short, and on the throw to first, Sarmiento tried to score from third but was thrown out at the plate, killing all of the momentum the Whalers had. Lausten then popped out to short to end the inning.

Andrew Fingleton (Binghamton) was strong on the mound for the Clippers, allowing just two runs on seven hits and two walks to pick up the win. Dante Morabito (St Joseph’s-Long Island) pitched the game’s final three innings, and didn’t allow any further damage to pick up the save.

Ryan Seaver (Rhode Island College) and Danny Kerr (Rowan College-Gloucester) each pitched well in relief for Sag Harbor, not allowing a run in the game’s final four innings to keep the Whalers within striking distance. Although he only pitched the game’s first two innings, Garrett Bolwell (Rhode Island CC) was credited with the loss after giving up three runs.

Tobin said after the game that the plan all along was to use Bolwell for only a few innings and then he would go to the bullpen.

“We wanted to get [Bolwell] to settle in a little bit,” he said. “He’s the type of guy who we don’t really want to go through the lineup three or four times, so that was the plan.”

Tobin highlighted two of his players, Max Hart (Williams) and Cole Forcellina (Connecticut-Avery Point), a pair of pitchers who he felt were a big part of the team’s success this summer. Hart was arguably the team’s ace, pitching to a 1.61 ERA during the regular season. Tobin felt that Hart did a great job all season keeping opposing hitters off balance and was smart with all of his pitches. Forcellina was a reliever on the team who had a 2.42 ERA during the regular season and Tobin said that every time he called upon him he got the job done.

Thursday’s loss brought on a lot of self reflection for Tobin, who said he felt as if he made many mistakes throughout the season that led to the team’s latest defeat and the team being unable to reach its goal of winning another HCBL Championship.

“I can think of about a thousand things that I could’ve done differently so we could still be playing,” he said. “I should’ve thrown Danny Kerr in there earlier, because he’s a strike machine and he’s an animal.”

Tobin felt that each one of his guys improved this summer and learned a lot about themselves as baseball players, which he said is what the summer is all about.

“Summer ball is about improvement and learning yourself in this game,” he said. “I think everyone on this team did that.”

He also gave a shout out to his co-manager, Bianca Smith, who he said taught him so much about the game that he will remember forever.

“She has taught me so much about perseverance and working hard,” he said. “I now have a friend for the rest of my life.”