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Matthew Dieguez turns a double play. RON ESPOSITO
The Sag Harbor Whalers were winners of three straight from June 19-21, including some high-scoring prolific games, but more recently lost two and sit at 5-5 on the season as of Tuesday morning.
One of the more exciting games of that three-game win streak, and really of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League season thus far, came on June 20, when the Whalers traveled to the North Fork to take on the Ospreys at Cochran Park in Peconic. Trailing, 10-8, after seven innings of play, Sag Harbor tied the game on a run-scoring single by Tucker Schiavoni (Roanoke) and a balk that produced a run with East Hampton graduate Tucker Genovesi (St. Bonaventure) at the plate.
Ryan Muskopf (George Mason) got the Whalers’ rally going to lead off the ninth with a triple, and after Kuyper Lashutka (Denison) was hit by a pitch, Schiavoni, the Pierson graduate, stepped up to the plate and unloaded on a three-run homer that eventually gave the Whalers the 13-10 road victory. Robert Hughes (Fairleigh Dickinson Florham) pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth in his second inning of work to earn the win.
Jack Gold (Pomona-Pitzer) has hit the ground running for the Whalers. He’s second in the league in batting average (.480), tied with four others for second in the league in homers (two), tied with five others for fifth in RBIs (seven) and tied for second in doubles (five). Anthony France (Southwestern) ranks in the top five in the league in strikeouts (11) .
HCBL Takes Game One of Showcase
Much of the league had off this past Monday and Tuesday as the HBCL, for the third consecutive season, sent many of its top prospects to Worthington Field at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, for the NACSB Prospect Games. On Monday morning, the HCBL defeated the New York Collegiate Baseball League, 7-3. It played the Sunbelt Baseball League on Tuesday morning, results of which occurred too late to appear in this week’s issue.
The HCBL found itself down early when the NYCBL took advantage of a two-out error in the top of the first. Bryce Rudisill (Pittsburgh) ripped an RBI double to give the NYCBL prospects an early 1-0 lead. Tyler Smith (Westhampton/Saint Peter’s) hit an RBI double with two outs that scored Tucker Genovesi (Sag Harbor/St. Bonaventure).
The NYCBL regained the lead in the top of the fourth when Rudisill hit his second RBI double of the game, which was then followed by an RBI double from Jake Ambrosio (Lock Haven) that put the HCBL down in a 3-1 hole. In the bottom of the fourth, the HCBL loaded the bases with two outs when Aidan O’Keefe (North Fork/Richmond) drew a walk that forced in a run to cut the score to 3-2. Genovesi then put the HCBL ahead in the following at-bat with a two-run double making the score 4-3. Ty Acker (North Fork/George Washington) plated two more runs on a single and was thrown out at second base trying to stretch it to a double, ending the five-run inning for the HCBL.
An RBI groundout from Tim Hennig (Southampton/Binghamton) that scored O’Keefe created the final score. The HCBL bullpen only allowed one NYCBL hit in the final five innings of play. Colin Carver (Shelter Island/Marist), who pitched two innings in the third and fourth, earned the win.
Acker, who currently leads the HCBL in batting average, went 2-for-3 at the plate. Anthony Scarabino (South Shore/Albany) was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
