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| Brandon Bonnano delivering a pitch in the seventh inning Photo Credit: Vinny Messana |
Trailing 2-0 in the fourth inning against Glenn, the Mt. Sinai Mustangs strung together four straight hits and eight hits in total against starter Tyler Arella to take a commanding 6-2 lead.
It was a lead they would not relinquish.
“We had a better approach at the plate,” said Mt. Sinai Head Coach Eric Reichenbach. “I think in the first couple of innings, with the lefty, we tried to pull off the ball a little–especially the right handers. After that inning, the guys let the ball get deep on them, drove the ball the other way,” he added.
In that fourth inning, Jared Donnelly got it started with a single to right field. Jason Conti followed suit with a single to left field. Cleanup hitter DJ Gatz dropped down a bunt that would’ve been sufficient enough to advance the runners but the second baseman was late to cover the base and everyone was safe. James Sarno made that mistake hurt with a single on a deep fly ball down the right field line to cut the lead to 2-1.
After a strikeout, DH Sam Kaplan smacked a two-run single to RF to give the Mustangs a 3-2 lead. The following batter hit an infield single to SS to increase the lead to 4-2. They broke it open with two more run scoring hits by Sam Kessler and Jared Donnelly.
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| Photo Credit: Vinny Messana |
Mustang starter, Brandon Bonanno, settled in after a rocky second inning and fired a CG, throwing 150 pitches.
He got into trouble in the seventh inning after walking the first two batters and the third batter reached on an error but he eluded any damage by striking out John Schefer and inducing Ryan Fissene to bounce into a 6-6-3 DP to end the game.
“I wasn’t going to take him out after four or five innings for playoff sake because he’s a big, strong kid he can handle the work,” Reichenbach said in regards to his starting pitcher.
Bonanno is the ace of the Mustangs and Reichenbach said he will be ready to start the first game of the playoffs regardless of when it is.
With the victory, the Mustangs improve to 10-6 overall and the Knights fall to 13-3 on the season.
They will be back in action facing each other again tomorrow.
