It was a phenomenal pitching duel between Hills East ace Patch Dooley and Smithtown East’s Doug Goodwin this afternoon. Both starters dominated, but Dooley was the star–fanning 15 in a one-hitter and leading the charge in a 2-1 victory.
Dooley threw a complete game, the one run he allowed came on the only hit allowed, a home run down the left field line by Andrew Canino to lead off the fourth inning. However, he came back strong recording 11 of the game’s final 12 outs on strike outs, and finishing with 15 Ks.
After the game he said, “My curveball was working, I was spotting my fastball and my team did a great job of toughing out two runs to get the win.”
Hills East only mustered four hits themselves, but smart base running helped put those who did get on get in great position to score. Senior Elliott Goldstein started it off with a single to center in the second inning, and Dooley helped his own cause with a double to right center that put them both in scoring position. Next, Reis Henderson flied out to the center fielder, but it was deep enough to score Goldstein and they went up 1-0.
Smithtown tied it on Canino’s homer, but Hills East struck again in the sixth.
Mike Palazzolo got the offense rolling again with a double to left center, he would come around on a sacrifice fly to left after stealing third. Their work on base paths was instrumental to the win today, after the game head coach Tim Belz said “We’re trying to be aggressive, Smithtown East is a well-coached team and they’re tough to run on… Our batters also did a great job when we got runners to third.”
Things did get a bit hairy for Hills East in the bottom of the seventh. Dooley put the tying and go-ahead runs on first and second with walks in the final frame, but he worked out of the trouble with a pair of strike outs and put Smithtown’s dreams of a comeback to rest.
Besides earning the win with a fantastic pitching performance Dooley was also the only player with multiple hits. Besides the second-inning double, he beat Goodwin over to first on an infield single in the fifth, but he was erased at second on a terrific throw from catcher Justin Harvey when trying to advance on an attempted bunt.
This series will continue tomorrow and Friday as these teams square off again, except Hills East will be home for both.
