13 Photos
Will Pacheco and the Whalers are pumped after taking a big lead midway through Wednesday's game. RON ESPOSITO
Jordan Falco (Adelphi) got the rod to start for the Breakers in game two of the HCBL semifinal series on Wednesday. RON ESPOSITO
Southampton third baseman Freddy Forgione (SUNY Maritime) goes to tag out Whaler ( ) . RON ESPOSITO
Will Pacheco (Assumption) allowed just two hits and three walks while striking out six in five shutout innings on Wednesday for the Whalers. RON ESPOSITO
Southampton's Nathan Brasher (Brown) sends a single into the outfield that drives in a pair of runs making it a 7-6 game in the bottom of the ninth. RON ESPOSITO
A Sag Harbor Whaler dives back to first base during a pickoff attempt. RON ESPOSITO
Southampton first baseman Luke Fisher (Villanova) tags Sag Harbor's C.J. Dean (Cincinnati). RON ESPOSITO
Jordan Falco (Adelphi) got the rod to start for the Breakers in game two of the HCBL semifinal series on Wednesday. RON ESPOSITO
Sag Harbor's Cam Santerre steals third base, one of four stolen bases in the game for the Rhode Island product. RON ESPOSITO
Breakers centerfielder Beau Root (Middlebury) settles underneath a fly ball with Andrew Smith (Queens) backing him up. RON ESPOSITO
The Whalers held on to a 7-6 victory in game two on Wednesday, advancing to the HCBL Championship Series that begins on Friday. RON ESPOSITO
D.J. Perron Jr. (UMass-Dartmouth) and the Whalers are excited to be heading to the HCBL Championship Series. RON ESPOSITO
Sag Harbors D.J. Perron Jr. (UMass-Dartmouth) goes to tag out Southampton's Luke Fisher (Villanova). RON ESPOSITO
The Sag Harbor Whalers played for their first-ever Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League Championship this past weekend.
The elder statesmen of the league — originally the Hampton Whalers in 2008, who won the Kaiser Division title of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League that year before losing in that league’s championship game — swept the Southampton Breakers in the best-of-three semifinal series last week, although it wasn’t easy.
After falling behind by five runs in game one of the series on July 26, host Sag Harbor came back to force extra innings, then won it in the bottom of the 10th when C.J. Dean (Cincinnati) drove in Mike Maher (Wheaton) with a base hit. Then, in game two, the very next day in Southampton, after five scoreless innings, Sag Harbor broke out for three runs in the sixth and four runs in the seventh to take a commanding 7-0 lead. But the Breakers scored two runs in the eighth, and then scratched across four runs in their last at bats in the ninth to make it a one-run game, 7-6. But Whaler reliever Cole Forcellina (Connecticut-Avery Point) got Breaker Sean Flaherty (Hofstra) to fly out to center field with the tying run on second base to end the game and clinch the series.
The Whalers went on to win their very first HCBL Championship on their home field on another walk-off win over the Westhampton Aviators in game three of the series on Sunday (see separate story).
As for the Breakers, it was a tough way to go out as a team that stood in first place for a good portion of the regular season. As manager Rob Cafiero pointed out, his team went 2-2-2 against the Whalers this season, and every game was close.
“We matched up pretty good with them. We played tight games with them all year,” he said. “It seemed like whichever team made the mistakes at the end of the game, was the team that lost. During our two playoff games we had with them, we made the mistakes later in the game. In the first game, they walked it off on us. In the second game, they were beating us down pretty good, but we ended up coming back in the bottom of the ninth with the tying run on second and the winning run at the plate before flying out to end the game.”
Regardless of the semifinal series loss, Cafiero was really happy with his team this summer and is looking forward to next summer.
“You never know at the beginning of the season what type of kids, what type of athletes you’re going to get. You just want to get kids who have a passion for playing the game, to learn and get better and ultimately who play hard for me throughout the whole summer,” he explained. “We had a bunch of kids this summer from a bunch of different schools, from different divisions, from Division I to Division III, but they came together as a team.
“More, on the more personal side, you want the kids to remember the summer for having created lifelong friendships with their teammates while also having fun playing some baseball again. And I think our kids were able to do that.”
