https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rqVci8Boeg
by Vinny Messana
Not even Martin Scorsese himself could script a more fitting end to a County Championship game.
Bases loaded, two-out, bottom of the ninth inning with the clean up hitter up after Bellmore JFK manager intentionally walked two batters to load the bases and set up a force at any bases.
On a 2-2 count with score knotted at 2-2, DH Will O’Brien laced the walk-off single to right field to score Charlie Interrante in front of an electric crowd and give Wantagh their first Nassau County Class A title since 2010.
“It’s a feeling I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” said O’Brien. “All I wanted to do was get the ball on the bat and score the winning run and that’s what happened. Best team in the world I’ve ever been on and it’s all for them!”
The game was as good as it gets.
Wantagh sent LHP Brendan Haas to the mound. He struggled a bit in the first inning and allowed a run on an RBI single by Mike Schwartz to drive in Frank Bruno who led off the game with a well-struck double to left.
Sunday, 5PM at the PAL Stadium in Holtsville!
Bruno was the starting pitcher for Bellmore JFK, he danced around trouble in the first two innings before allowing a run in the bottom of the third on a sac fly by Jimmy Joyce to score Anthony D’Onofrio.
The score remained that way until the top of the seventh inning when Joyce came in relief of Haas and allowed an RBI triple to deep right center field to Bruno which scored Reid Oreste.
Bellmore was three outs away from the title with reliever Jonah Zeitlin on the hill.
He allowed a leadoff single to John Conroy. The next batter, Interrante, dropped down a sac bunt by Zeitlin lobbed it over to first and he beat the throw. After a fly ball moved Conroy to third, Joyce tied the ballgame up with a ground out to second base.
Both teams went quietly in the eighth, but in the bottom of the ninth, Interrante hit a one-out triple over the left fielder’s head. Eric Passman chose to intentionally walk D’Onofrio and Joyce to set up a force at any base.
Wantagh’s Head Coach, Keith Sachs, noted that he expected the move to be made. Fortunately, he had his cleanup hitter up at the plate who was ready for the big moment.
The game-winning hit sent the Warriors to the Long Island Championship. They will face Sam Kessler and the Mount Sinai Mustangs on Saturday.
Sachs stated that they have not thought about the next game, and they wouldn’t have brought in Joyce for three innings if they were playing for the next game.
“I’ve heard Kessler is a pretty good arm and Mount Sinai is good but we’re just happy that we won counties.”
“We thought we were one of the top teams in the county,” said Sachs.
They proved that today and they will march on looking to pull off one more win to advance to the state tournament.
