Westhampton Aviators Eye Fifth HCBL Championship Title After Wild Game Three Semifinal Win Over South Shore

With runners on first and second base and no outs, the Westhampton Aviators trailed the host South Shore Clippers, 2-1, in the deciding game three of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League semifinals on Thursday, July 28, and had the number nine batter in the order with Greg Becil coming to the plate. Westhampton manager Jason Jacome had a decision to make — have Becil bunt or let him swing away.

Becil, a New York City native and Lehigh University product, made Jacome’s decision for him.

“We walked up to each other and I just said I want to smoke this kid,” Becil said he told his manager. “He had me last at bat before. He struck me out on a really nice inside slider, but, I don’t know, I just went up there with confidence — first and second, no outs. I was, like, ‘I’m going to put a barrel on the ball.’”

And that’s exactly what he did.

On the very first pitch he saw, Becil lined a base hit to right field that scored Conor Kelly (UMass-Lowell) from second base with the tying run. Later in the inning, Tyler Smith (Saint Peters) drove in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly that scored Hayden Sobecki (Yale), who was pinch running for Dillon DiBartolomeo (NYU), who singled earlier in the inning. Sam Hill (UMass-Amherst) worked around a fielding error and loading the bases before striking out Ryan McIntyre (Amherst) to clinch the 3-2 come-from-behind victory at Bellport High School.

With the game three victory, the Aviators topped the Clippers in the semifinal series to the HCBL Championship Series, which also went down to the wire, but they eventually lost in three games to the Sag Harbor Whalers (see separate story). The series win over South Shore marked the first time the Aviators beat the Clippers in the playoffs, having lost to them in the 2017 HCBL Championship Series and the 2018 HCBL semifinals, when they were the Long Island Road Warriors. One of the most successful franchises in league history, it is the fifth time in the last seven seasons that the Aviators have advanced to the HCBL Championship Series and the seventh time they have advanced to the Championship Series in franchise history.

After the game, Jacome confirmed Becil’s conversation between the two just before his at bat in the ninth and said he liked what he heard.

“That’s the kind of attitude I like. These guys want to go out there and hit,” he said. “We’ve played the whole season without a whole lot of sac bunting and that kind of stuff, just letting the guys go out there and hit and get their at bats. Their college coaches don’t want to see how many sac bunts they laid down here in the summer. They’re out there swinging away, and it worked.

“They all did a great job, all around,” Jacome added of his team, in general. “Pitching, defense, hitting.”

South Shore, which was the top seed going into the playoffs after finishing the regular season in first place, scratched across two runs in the top of the first to take an early 2-0 lead on Thursday. Westhampton came back with a run of its own in the top of the second to make it a one-run game and it stayed that way from that point on until the Aviators’ heroics in the top of the ninth.

The game very much mirrored that of the first two games. The Clippers took game one of the series on July 26, 2-1, in walk-off fashion, and although Westhampton won game two of the series the next day, 11-7, the game was very much back and forth until the Aviators scored eight runs in the seventh and eighth innings combined, five coming in the eighth to take the lead and eventual win. Even then, South Shore responded in their last bats with a run and finished that game with the bases loaded.

It’s been a longer road for the Aviators this postseason than any other team, needing to defeat the North Fork Ospreys in the wildcard game before going the full three games against South Shore. Sag Harbor, meanwhile, only needed two games to sweep the Southampton Breakers in their series this week, although both games did go down to the wire.

Suffice it to say, though, if the Aviators have plans at winning another league title, they’ll have to do so with what is now their most limited roster.

“It’s kind of tight,” Jacome confirmed of his remaining group. “I had a guy calling me about 9 o’clock last night from the airport, one of our starters, and he was on his way home.

“We’ll do whatever we need to do,” he added. “We’re going to have to go out there and scratch and fight, do whatever we can to win a ball game. Have no days off so guys that pitched so many innings are already done — but they can at least come and give us some support and go out there and cheer. You know, act like a team.”

Based on Becil’s excitement to advance, the players that have remained are excited to be in the mix for a league title.

“It feels amazing,” he said. “We honestly always put up a good game against these guys. I think every game of this series was an insanely intense game that came down to the last out. It feels really good beating a good team. They’re a good team, we’re a good team. Feels nice to go to the championship, to get to compete with Sag, which is also a good team.”