by Vinny Messana
He knew if he tried to hit a home run it wouldn’t happen, even with winds gusting out to left field at 26 mph.
“It was going out,” said Tyler Villez in regards to the wind, who smacked two home runs in Sayville‘s 7-3 win over rival Rocky Point to win two of three in the series. “Anything in the sky, it’s going to help it out. I wasn’t trying to hit home runs, I was going for the team approach that coach tells us to.I knew if I thought about it, I would get out,” he added.
Rocky Point’s starting pitcher, Paul Dominguez, deserved much better fate than he got.
After retiring the first batter of the game, he allowed a wind-aided home run to eighth grader Brock Murtha. After a walk and a strikeout, Villez drove one to left field that appeared to be a playable ball for the left fielder. The wind continued to blow it out, and it sailed over the wall to put Sayville up 3-0.
Anthony Martino delivers a pitch (Photo Credit: Vinny Messana)
To begin the bottom of the second inning, Pierce May led off with a solo HR of his own–which made it three in a span of eight batters.
Rocky Point answered back with two of their own in the top of the third against Sayville’s starter, Anthony Martino. A wild pitch scored Dillon Cassidy and Kyle Strovink drove in Joe Grillo with a well-struck RBI single to right field.
In the bottom of the fifth, Sayville knocked out Dominguez after Villez smacked his second HR of the game to increase the lead to 6-2.
Martino fired the CG, he allowed three runs, allowed eight hits and struck out one batter.
“We had three good pitching performances this series,” said 14th year Head Coach Ryan Cox. “Martino did a great job because he was efficient, we just had spoken about it. He didn’t get deep into counts, he didn’t walk anybody,” he added.
Cox went on to commend the job that Rocky Point has done under Head Coach Andrew Aschettino.
“They have a great team, real tough, real gritty. To come away with two is a good feeling.”
