by Vinny Messana
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Greg Tsouprakos scored on a wild pitch to give first-place West Islip a victory over a hungry North Babylon team, 4-3.
Two innings prior, the Lions were down to their last out with a runner on third base when sophomore Jake Guercio hit a dribbler that the shortstop couldn’t handle and allowed West Islip to tie the game against Steven Burke–who hurled a gem in this one.
There’s a lotta good guys on that team,” said West Islip’s winning pitcher, Ray Weber, in regards to North Babylon. “They fought, and we matched their intensity, I felt like, through out the duration of the game. They did a great job, gotta give credit to them for fighting,” said Weber–who now has six wins and will be heading to the University at Albany in the fall. He also won on Tuesday, but his Head Coach, Shawn Rush, stated that being that he threw only five innings, he was ready to use him if needed.
“We had that kind of mentality, where we gotta keep them there and maybe scratch one or two out in the seventh,” said Rush. “When Ray’s on, I don’t think there’s many better guys out there,” he added.
Weber came on in relief in of Jimmy Mattera (6 IP, 8 Ks, 6 H, 1 BB) in the seventh inning and faced the minimum over three innings, allowing just a walk that was erased on a 6-6-3 double play.
Burke was terrific in this game, holding a high-octane offense at bay for eight innings.
North Babylon took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second when Pat McCabe reached on an infield single and Pat Solomita came around to score when James Kory couldn’t handle the throw from the second baseman. Joe Barbuto hit an RBI single to drive in Paul Tchinnis and increase the lead to 2-0.
They added a run in the third inning on an RBI single from Solomita, who drove in Nick Balfe (2-for-4. run scored).
The Lions chipped away with a run in their half of the third on a run-scoring single by Guercio, but Burke eluded further damage when he coaxed a double play from Weber.
In the bottom of the fourth, they added another run when Nick Valenti scored on a single by Tommy Parson.
For the next couple innings, both pitchers dominated and it appeared the game would end 3-2. Burke entered the seventh inning with only 80 pitches, but walked the leadoff batter. After a sac bunt by Kyle O’Neill and a ground out to short, that’s when Guercio hit the grounder that tied up the game.
The Bulldogs went down quietly in the eight and ninth innings which set the stage for the Lions.
June 5th at Dowling
Tsoprakos almost ended the game by himself–he turned on a fastball by reliever Solomita and it was nearly a home run, but landed just foul. He ended up walking and advancing on a sac bunt. After a ground out to first, that’s when Solomita uncorked the wild pitch to give the Lions the victory.
“We got a lotta momentum going into the playoffs, and hopefully we can carry that momentum into the playoffs,” said Weber.
