by Vinny Messana
It was a simple scenario for Newfield–win and they qualify for their first postseason berth since 2005.
Except Smithtown East was in the away dugout and they weren’t about to do the Wolverines any favors.
The Bulls overcame a 5-4 deficit in the seventh inning, with the go-ahead hit coming on a long two-run double down the left field line in the eighth inning for freshman Ryan Pennisi to score Nick Rizzo.
“A line that we like to use pretty often is ‘pressure is a privilege,’ there’s no pressure if you don’t play in big games,” said Smithtown East Head Coach Ken Klee. “We’ve been pretty fortunate to play in a lot of big games so being tested comes through in a game like today when they’re playing for their playoff lives. It was a great, great leadoff to the playoffs,” he added.
Newfield sent their sophomore star Bobby Vath to the mound for the biggest start of his young career.
The Bulls took a 1-0 first inning lead on a unique play in which the base runner on second was going to be picked off, but he took off to run to third. Newfield’s shortstop threw the ball away and it allowed Mike Ruggeiro to score the game’s first run.
The Wolverines took the lead back in their half of the second on some sloppiness by the Bulls. Kyle Wappaus led off with an infield single and advanced to second on an errant throw. His brother, Ryan, dropped down a sacrifice bunt but the Bulls starter, Chris Walsh, threw the ball away and Kyle scored to tie up the game. Ryan went to second on the throw. Tommy DeSena executed a sac bunt to advance him to third. Frankie DiAntonio gave the Wolverines the lead with a sac fly to left field.
The lead didn’t last long as the Bulls put up two in the third. The leadoff batter, Justin Harvey, reached on an error by the second baseman. Wes Marshall advanced him to second on a sac bunt. Shawn Kelly, one of the top hitters in the 2016 class and headed to SUNY Cortland in the fall, ripped an RBI double to left center field to tie the ballgame up. After a flyout to right, the red-hot John Marti smoked a triple to left-center field. Had there been a fence it certainly would’ve been a home run but rather he was left stranded at third with the Bulls leading 3-2.
Klee was complimentary of his third baseman who is committed to Lafayettte.
“To be honest, John’s had an offensive year that’s been unbelievable,” said Klee. “He’s hitting over .500, and even his outs, as you saw today–he might’ve had two home runs today if the fence was there. He’s been awesome, he’s been absolutely awesome.”
Once again, there was a lead change in the bottom of the third. Jacob Van Essendelft started the inning off with a single and stole second base. After Mark Maurelli hit a single to put runners on the corner, Kyle Wappaus hit an RBI single and his brother smacked a two-run single to take the 5-2 lead.
Bobby Vath settled in after that. He put up scoreless frames in the fourth and sixth innings, and allowed just an unearned on a sac fly in the fifth inning off the bat of Marti–which would’ve been a grand slam had there been a fence as Klee alluded to.
With the Wolverines three outs away from the postseason, the Bulls did not waiver.
Harvey led off and reached on an error. The nine-place hitter Marshall had an impressive at bat, fouling off three-consecutive two-strike pitches before blooping a single to center field.
That was it for Vath who was lifted in favor of Nick Hesselbirg.
After getting ahead 0-2 he spun a breaking ball that Kelly cued down the first base line and beat Hesselbirg to the bag to load up the bases.
The following batter, Ruggeiro, hit a grounder of Hesselbirg’s foot and it ricocheted into left field to score two runs but he was thrown out attempting to advance to second base. The inning was ended on an unassisted double play by the first baseman on a rocket line by Marti.
In the bottom of the seventh, Doug Goodwin came on to preserve the lead but he struggled. VanEssenhelft lined a single to start the rally. Leadoff batter, Kyle Johnson lined a single as well to put runners on first and second. Maurelli lined a single to right field to score the tying run but Johnson was thrown out at the plate trying to advance and the game was knotted at 6-6 going to extras.
In the top of the eighth, cleanup batter Nick Rizzo launched a leadoff triple that also would’ve been a home run. Hesselbirg was able to bear down and retire the next two batters via groundout and strikeout to prevent the run from scoring.
That was until freshman Ryan Pennisi smacked a long fly down the left field line that landed just inside the chalk to give the Bulls a 7-6 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, outfielder Shawn Kelly asked Coach Klee to get the save opportunity.
Despite walking two batters, he was able to get two strikeouts and induce a fly out to center to end the game and make Newfield wait at least another day to clinch a postseason berth.
With the victory, the Bulls improve to 16-3 on the season while the Wolverines drop to 9-10.
