by Vinny Messana
If this game was any indication of how the Suffolk County Class AA playoffs will play out–we’re in store for some theatrics.
Smithtown West overcame a 4-1 deficit in the top of the seventh inning and Nick Grande escaped a 2nd & 3rd, none out jam in the bottom of the seventh to lead the Bulls to a huge League III victory.
“It was really just a battle of wits,” said the Stony Brook commit who battled and overcame some costly errors behind him to win his fourth game of the year and put himself in the early conversation for the League III MVP. “It was whoever was going to stay mentally tougher,” he added.
The Bulls drew six walks in the first three innings against sophomore Joe Litchhult making his varsity debut. The southpaw was able to navigate through the jams in the first, second and third innings by using his nasty arsenal of pitches. He escaped the first inning on a 6-6-3 DP started by Mike Palazzolo. He escaped a bases loaded, out out jam in the second with consecutive strikeouts and he induced a ground out with runners on 1st and 2nd in the third inning.
The T-Birds broke through first in the bottom of the third on an error by the shortstop off the bat of Litchhult to score Palazzolo.
The Bulls responded in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Nicholas Trabacchi to right field which scored the tying run. Hills East’s coach Tim Belz opted to intentionally walk Grande to bring up the dangerous Mike Zito. The decision worked out when Litchhult fanned him to end the frame.
Both pitchers threw up zeros in the fifth inning and Litchhult put up a zero in the top of the sixth.
The T-Birds broke through with three runs thanks to consecutive one-out singles followed by an infield error off the bat of Michael Mincone. After a strikeout, Palazzolo reached on an error to bring in the second run of the inning. A hit by pitch loaded the bases for one of the top players on Long Island, Matt Hogan. On a 3-2 pitch, Grande walked Hogan to bring in the third run of the inning. He fanned Litchhult to finally end the frame, but it certainly appeared to be the nail in the coffin.
That was just the beginning.
Hills East brought in Aaron O’Donnell to protect the 4-1 lead. Grande led off the seventh inning with a single. Zito walked to bring up Anthony Amato. He struck out for the first out of the inning. After a walk loaded the bases, ace Patch Dooley came on from third base looking to put out the fire.
Dooley could not find the zone, however. He threw a wild pitch to advance all the runners and bring in Smithtown’s first run of the inning. He walked the batter to reload the bases and walked the next batter to make it 4-3. He allowed a single to Sean Mulhall to score the tying run and another walk which prompted Belz to put him back at third and put O’Donnell back on the mound. Trabacchi drew the bases loaded walk to give the Bulls a 4-3 lead before Grande flew out to Hogan to finally end the inning.
Grande went back to the mound for the seventh inning but ran into immediate trouble by allowing consecutive hits to Dooley (single) and James Ceparano (double). With second and third and none out it appeared the game would have another wild comeback but Grande got tough and induced an infield pop out and struck out the next two batters to put an exclamation point on the victory.
The Bulls improved to 12-1 while the T-Bird dropped to 7-5. Grande allowed nine hits and walked one in the complete game victory while allowing two ER.
The two teams will be back in action tomorrow with a premier match up of Patch Dooley-Nicholas Trabacchi–two juniors with Division-I talent.
