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| Photo Credit: Vinny Messana |
In what appeared to be a smooth 4-1 win in a monumental game, Smithtown East rallied off Connetquot starter John Hengge with two outs in the seventh inning on RBI singles by Matt DiPietro and Matt Milne to tie the game at 4.
Yesterday’s starter, Travis Bruinsma, came on to record the final out of the seventh and allow the Thunderbirds bats to go to work.
That’s exactly what they did. Hot-hitting Aaron Gagliano lined a one out single up the middle with runners on first and second off yesterday’s winning pitcher, Greg Maitles, to send the T-Birds into a frenzy.
It was also Bruinsma’s 10th win of the season–a very rare feat for high school pitchers.
They won the best-of-three semifinals and will now take on Ward Melville on Saturday in the first game of the Suffolk County AA finals.
It promises to be a tremendous series between the two teams that had the best record among the AA schools.
Smithtown East had a tremendous season–they finish with a 20-4 record while Connetquot improves to 22-3.
