by Vinny Messana
With first place on the line, junior Damien Fanduiz went out and flirted with a no-no. Not that he even realized it, though.
“I didn’t even know I had a no-hitter until, like, the sixth inning,” said Fanduiz, who helped his Bay Shore Marauders to a crucial 6-3 victory over rival Northport. “I went out there in the seventh and tried to do my best and put my team in position to win.”
He certainly did that. While he did not complete the no-hitter–Nick Curcio lined a single to left field with no out in the seventh–he did strike out nine batters and allow two ER over 6+ innings. At one point, he fanned five of seven batters and four in a row.
The offense got on the board right away off Northport’s starter Nicholas Palmerini. Kevin Otto (3-for-4, 2 runs scored, 3 stolen bases) started the game with a single and stole second. He advanced on a ground out to first and scored on a ground out to shortstop by Hermes Abreu.
The Tigers answered right back in their half of the first inning when Curcio walked, advanced to second on a ground out, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Frank Stola.
After both pitchers traded zeros in the second inning, the Marauders went to work in the third. Ironically, it was the only time Otto was retired in the game. With one out, Chris LaRose reached on an error by the first baseman, and Brian Weissert was hit by a pitch to advance him to second. Hermes Abreu grounded out to second to advance the runners and that set the stage for Joe Chionchio to smack a two-run single to right field to give Bay Shore a 3-1 lead. They increased it to 4-1 when Mike Iivoria followed with an RBI of his own.
Fanduiz hit his stride in the third–he struck out the side after an error by the first baseman. He also struck out two in the fourth inning and one in the fifth inning to bring his total to eight through five.
What a performance by Damien Fanduiz (Photo Credit: Vinny Messana)
Even at this point, there wasn’t much buzz surrounding the no-hitter because he had hit two batters, walked one and two runners reached via error.
Nevertheless, he continued to put up zeros–five in a row to be exact.
The Marauders added one more run in the seventh inning on an RBI ground out by Fordham-bound Brian Weissert, despite a drawn in infield.
Head Coach Mike Herbst noted that Otto’s speed allowed him to put on a contact play, meaning the runner breaks on contact regardless of the placement of the infield.
It proved to be important when Fanduiz ran out of gas in the seventh inning and Herbst called on his catcher, Abreu, to pitch in relief just one day after throwing 1.2 innings.
After walking the first batter, he threw a wild pitch to allow the Tigers to score their second run and Curcio stole home on the back end of a double steal to creep closer to 6-3.
He put out the fire, however, by retiring the next three batters including a ground out to second base to end the game and improve the Marauders to 9-2 overall.
“We can do it a number of ways,” said Herbst. “We can run on the bases, we’re quick–we can steal a bag if we need to, put a bunt down if we need to, play the small ball, we can pitch and we can hit. When we put it all together, we are a dangerous club,” he added.
