by Vinny Messana
When two great pitchers are on the top of their game, it usually takes some late-game heroics to win it.
That’s exactly what happened. George Rainer hit a sac-fly in the ninth inning to give Mount Sinai a 2-1 win over Sal Zafonte and Sayville.
James Sarno made a tremendous play in the center field to end a threat in the ninth inning and eighth grader Paul Gomes threw out the potential game-winning run at the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning.
June 5th at Dowling College
Mount Sinai’s ace, Sam Kessler, fired the full nine-innings and continued his masterful season with 12 strikeouts and one unearned run. He now has six wins, and has allowed only four ER over 51.1 IP with 78 Ks and only 23 hits and nine walks. He is committed to West Virginia in the fall but there has been recent chatter that his performance could warrant a selection in the MLB Draft next month.
“Going against an arm like that (Zafonte) is always great,” said Kessler. “It makes you want to exceed what you are capable of. He pitched a great game and hats off to him,” he added.
Despite the terrific outing, Kessler felt he wasn’t at his sharpest.
“I think today I didn’t have what was my best location–could’ve been better and I walked more guys than usual. Besides that I felt great and thought I pitched well enough to win,” he said.
He went on to rave about the defense behind him.
“That play by Sarno was one of the best I’ve seen. He’s a senior also and he gives it his all everyday of the week. I thought the ball was out when their guy hit it, but luckily we have one of the best outfielders on Long Island and he made the plat that saved the game. Also can’t forget the throw our eighth grader made to prevent them from walking off.”
Another big moment in the game was the game-tying home run in the fifth inning by Jake Golino.
With the victory, Mount Sinai improves to 14-7 on the season and will face No. 2 seed Comsewogue tomorrow at 4pm with Brandon Bonnano on the hill.
“If Brandon can pitch to what he’s capable of we can get the ‘W’.”
Brad Kessler
Great game, both pitchers did an awesome job.