Southampton Baseball Has Already Surpassed Last Year's Win Total

The Southampton baseball team is already showing a moxie the team hasn’t had, or maybe just hasn’t exhibited, in recent years.

After suffering a 2-1 season-opening loss at Southold on March 27, the Mariners returned to the North Fork exactly one week later to face the Settlers once again, and this time they came away with a convincing 12-3 victory.

Sophomore Elijah Abella struck out 15 and scattered four hits in six innings of work to lead the Mariners. He also went 2 for 4 with a double and a pair of RBIs at the plate. Senior Riley Herrmann went 3 for 4, scored four times, drove in two runs and hit a pair of doubles and a triple. Sophomore Daniel McDonnell went 2 for 5 including a triple with two RBIs and two runs scored, and sophomore Jackson Romanow went 1 for 2 with a triple and two walks and also scored twice.

Through five games in the early going of the season, the Mariners are 3-2, already surpassing last year’s win total of two.

“We beat our win total from last year and that’s a positive thing. All the kids are happy about it,” Southampton head coach Zach Epley said after Monday’s victory. “We’re excited. The team is gelling and we’re excited to take a step up in competition this week with Pierson on Tuesday and then Port Jefferson this weekend.

“We’re still a young team, starting five sophomores and a freshman, but they are all playing really well,” he added.

What’s great about Monday’s victory, Epley said, was that it was one of his team’s mandatory nonleague games, which count toward its league record and thus qualifying for playoffs. The season-opening loss to Southold was just a nonleague game, which doesn’t have any playoff implications.

Epley said he was proud of Abella’s bounce-back performance, after having a rough inning in that season-opening loss in which he came in relief and allowed the eventual game-winning run.

“He was good, and what made his performance even better was that he didn’t walk a batter either,” he explained. “He let up four hits, struck out 15, and he only threw 88 pitches in six innings, so he put the ball over the plate, made them put the ball in play. And it was his first start of the season so it was a little bit of a redemption game for him being that he was the losing pitcher in the first one. It was good for him to start and get that fresh slate and he pitched the way I thought he would.”

One thing Epley said he’s noticed in the first week or so of the season is that his team is hitting the ball and putting the ball in play much better, compared to last season. James Dudley, a freshman, went 5 for 5 in the Mariners’ 9-0 home victory over Greenport on Friday. In that game, McDonnell struck out all nine batters he faced before giving way to relievers who kept the shutout intact. He was coming off what was also a strong outing against Amityville, which Southampton defeated, 12-5, at home on March 29.

Southampton’s only other loss last week came at Bridgehampton/Ross, another game decided by one run, 5-4, which Epley thought his team should have won, being that it was up 3-0 in the fourth inning. But things kind of went downhill from there and the Killer Bees stormed back to take the lead and eventually the game.

“We beat ourselves that game,” he said. “I think we were the better team, and that’s not to take anything away from Bridgehampton — they’re a much better team this season and a good group, but I do think we should have beat them.”

As Epley mentioned, Southampton played Pierson in a mandatory nonleague game on Tuesday, then it will host Port Jeff in another mandatory nonleague game this Saturday at 11 a.m., before playing Pierson at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor on Monday, April 10, also at noon in what is a regular nonleague game.