by Vinny Messana
As Wantagh’s Head Coach Keith Sachs noted “this ain’t the pros,” so when his ace, Jimmy Joyce, is struggling with his command during the seventh inning of Game One of the Nassau County Class A Finals, you let him figure it out.
“I couldn’t find the strike zone,” said Joyce, who experienced a brief bout with Steve Blass Disease after retiring the first two hitters in the seventh inning–one out away from a CG shutout of Bellmore JFK.
He allowed a two-out double to catcher Reid Oreste and an infield single to Pete Cuttita before walking Frank Bruno to load the bases. UConn-bound Mikey Schwartz drew a bases-loaded walk to end the shutout and cut the deficit to 3-1.
That brought up Jason Coules–the sophomore who started and fired six strong innings and also helped himself with a ground-rule double in the previous inning.
Anthony D’Onofrio grounds the ball to shortstop (Photo Credit: Vinny Messana)
Was there any consideration for Sachs to take out his ace in the crucial spot?
“A tired Jimmy is better than anyone else,” said Sachs. So, the decision was an easy one and Joyce was able to bear down and retire Coules to finish the complete game and get Wantagh the 3-1 victory in Game One. It was his seventh win of the season.
The Hofstra-bound Joyce, who worked predominantly with his fastball in the early innings, found his curveball in the mid innings and that was a big reason he retired seven batters in a row from the fourth to sixth inning before Coules’ double broke it up.
“He’s got great stuff,” said Sachs. “People think he’s just a power pitcher, but once he found his curveball, everything else worked. He had to gut it out to finish it–but that’s high school baseball.”
The Wantagh Warriors, 21-4, had a high-octane offense all year but they struggled against Coules.
They went scoreless in the first two innings but broke through in the third.
Mike Derham led off the inning with a walk. After John Conroy flew out, Anthony D’Onofrio walked to put a runner in scoring position. Next, was a strange play. John Fitzgerald flew out to mid-range center field and Derham was tagging up. He was going to be safe easily but the throw to the cutoff man was mishandled which allowed him to score the game’s first run.
Just seconds later, Joyce connected on an RBI triple to score D’Onofrio and increase the lead to 2-0. DH Will O’Brien looped a single to CF to bring the score to 3-0.
Coules settled in after that–allowing zero runs and escaping a runner on third with 0 out jam in the sixth inning. Joyce had hit his second triple of the game but was left stranded.
Joyce finished with only two strikeouts but threw strikes and kept his pitch count down.
With the victory, the Warriors are one win away from winning the Nassau County Class A title as the No. 7 seed. They will throw Bobby Hegarty,who has six wins on the season. He will most likely be opposed by the hard throwing Schwartz. It should be a great match up.
