by Vinny Messana
There’s been one constant every game this season for Commack. There’s no guarantee they’ll win every game, but if they are playing, you can bet that third-place hitter Peter Theodorellis will get a hit.
They defeated Sachem East this afternoon, 11-1, and the junior lined a single over the shortstop in the fifth inning to extend his season-long hitting streak to 18 games. Oh, and he also fired a five-hitter, allowing zero ER and went the distance for his fourth victory of the season.
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana
“I noticed my hitting streak about third series in but didn’t really tell anyone, but my teammate, Brian Morissey, in my last game against William Floyd brought up how I have a hit in every game so that’s how it became more public. It honestly means a lot to me because my overall team goal was to win the league title and make a deep playoff run and it’s great to know that my hit streak has helped our team play this well… My personal goal was to have an undefeated regular season pitching which I completed and to bat .500 in the regular season (4-0) and I’m batting .492 so in the last two games get a few hits and get my streak to 20 games and our team to stay hot going into the playoffs
The Cougars struck first with a two-run first inning single by Joe Clarkin to score Ben McNeil and James Cardinale (1-for-1, 4 BB).
Sachem East responded in the second inning with an unearned run. Dylan Stalzer reached on an error and came around to score on a sac fly by Kyle Menendez. But, that’s all they could muster off the Farleigh-Dickinson commit. He settled in and needed only 68 pitches to get through the first six innings.
The score remained 2-1 entering the fifth inning when the Cougars batted around and scored seven runs.
Cardinale led off with his third walk of the day and ended up scoring on a throwing error by the first baseman that got away from the catcher. Ryan Steffans had an RBI single, Jake Jacobs smacked a two-run double to left field and Ben McNeil (NYIT commit) ripped a run-scoring single as well.
That was more than enough for their ace who made the runs stand up.
Despite only striking out three, he was very sharp and utilized his defense effectively. They are very strong up-the-middle with McNeil and Lorenzo Russo.
With the victory, the Cougars improve to 12-6 on the season while Sachem East drops to 2-13.
“It’s great for the team to stay hot and still be in contention for the league title,” he added.
One bright spot in this game for Sachem East was the incredible outfield play of Anthony Scheller. He made two diving catches in the outfield and displayed why he is one of the top prospects in the 2016 class and will be attending the College of St. Rose in the fall.
