Killer Bees Baseball Shuts Out Shelter Island After Honoring Carl Yastrzemski Before First Varsity Game In 43 Years

At first, it was all about Hall of Famer and former Boston Red Sox and Bridgehampton great Carl Yastrzemski, who was honored with a commemorative plaque describing him as “one of the greatest baseball players of all time,” as varsity baseball returned to Bridgehampton High School on April 5 after a 43-year absence.

But once the players trotted onto the school’s new playing field, it was all about the Killer Bees and junior pitcher Scott Vinski.

Vinski channeled another Major League great, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, as he struck out 16 Shelter Island Islanders on his way to a complete-game, 6-0 shutout win. Vinski gave up only two hits, including a sixth inning double, and didn’t walk any batters.

Meanwhile, sophomore catcher Milo Tompkins, one of seven Ross School students on the Bridgehampton roster, went 3 for 4 with a double and scored twice, to lead the Bees’ attack.

A large crowd for tiny Bridgehampton showed up for the return of varsity baseball, helped undoubtedly by the news that the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame would unveil a plaque honoring Yastrzemski, a 1957 Bridgehampton graduate, who went on to attend the University of Notre Dame on a baseball and basketball scholarship before signing with the Boston Red Sox.

On opening day in 1961, Yaz would have the unenviable task of replacing the irreplaceable Ted Williams in left field for the Red Sox, a position he would hold down, with a little third base and first base thrown in, for the next 23 years.

During his career, Yastrzemski was an All-Star 18 times and won seven Gold Gloves. In 1967, the year he led the Red Sox to the World Series against Gibson’s St. Louis Cardinals, Yastrzemski was named Most Valuable Player and also hit for the Triple Crown with 44 home runs, 121 RBIs, and a .326 batting average. Over his career, Yaz had 3,419 hits, including 452 home runs, and batted .285.

He was a first-ballot inductee to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 and named to the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame the following year. When Bridgehampton High School created its own hall of fame in 2016, Yaz was, of course, a member of the inaugural group of inductees.

“I wanted to honor the past and inspire the future,” said Chris Vaccaro, the executive director of the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame, before the plaque was unveiled.

Bridgehampton athletic director and assistant baseball coach Mike DeRosa and head coach Lou Liberatore had hoped to coax Yastrzemski, who now lives a decidedly private life in Florida, back to Bridgehampton for the ceremony, but he declined the invitation.

But one of Yastrzemski’s old friends, Dan Shedrick, read a message from the Hall of Famer.

Yastrzemski thanked his former coaches, teammates, and the Bridgehampton community for its longstanding support.

“Most importantly, my congrats to the Bridgies’ new varsity team,” he concluded. “Learn from your coaches, play hard, and have fun.”

DeRosa said that credit for reviving Bridgehampton baseball had to go to Liberatore, a former star pitcher at Molloy College and a special education teacher at Bridgehampton. Liberatore inquired about creating a team in 2018. DeRosa said he told him he didn’t think the school had enough kids who were interested in the sport but that he could try to put together a team. A few hours later, he said, Liberatore had found enough participants for “an A team and a B team.”

Bridgehampton teamed up with the Ross School in East Hampton to field a junior varsity team last year, but had to play most of its games off campus because a new baseball field, completed as part of a multimillion-dollar school renovation project, was not ready until late in the spring.

After remarks from Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, it was time to play ball. Carl Johnson, a Bridgehampton star as both a basketball player and coach, who played on the last Bridgie baseball team in 1979, was called upon to throw out the first pitch.

Vinski, a left-hander, struck out the side to start the game. In the bottom half of the first, Tompkins singled to left and stole second and third base before coming home on a wild pitch to give Bridgehampton the only run it would need.

Bridgehampton padded its lead in the fourth when designated hitter Evan Buccigross drove in Jack Boeshore and Sean Gnyp with a line drive single. It added three more down the stretch. Kris Vinski drove in Tompkins on a fifth inning double, and Boeshore followed with a sacrifice fly to bring home Vinski. In the sixth inning, Scott Vinski capped the scoring when he singled in Eli Wolf.

Afterward, the Bridgehampton players raked the infield and cleaned up around the dugout in keeping with Liberatore’s dictum that they pay attention to detail in how they approach the game. “I’m happy for my team,” he said. “They played a good game today.”

The two teams were supposed to resume their series on April 6 on Shelter Island, but the game was rained out and was rescheduled for Thursday, April 14, on Shelter Island. On Friday, the Islanders forfeited because they didn’t have enough players to field a team, but the two squads met in Bridgehampton, nonetheless, for a friendly scrimmage.