Freshman Ryan Levenberg stole the show in today’s League 5 match up between two perennial playoff contenders. Even more impressive, he out dueled 2016 Long Island win leader and Hofstra-commit Brad Camarda. Hauppauge came away with the 4-2 victory over Hills West.
“Ryan did a great job of keeping them off balance,” said Head Coach Josh Gutes. “They hit some hard balls–just right at us, so we might’ve been a little lucky in that regard because Hills West is a fantastic team and they’re tremendously well-coached,” he added.
The freshman Levenberg went six innings, fanned six batters, allowing just two ER on five hits to record the victory in his first varsity start. He gave way to senior Matt Overton who fired a 1-2-3 seventh inning with two strikeouts to improve the Eagles to 6-1 on the season.
Just as impressive for the Eagles was their ability to put the bat on the ball against Camarda. An aXcess pre-season top 30 player, Camarda routinely fans double-digit batters per game but the Eagles were able to make him work and get him out of the game in the sixth inning with a lead.
Gutes noted that Camarda is “as good of a pitcher as you will see around here”, commending him for his ability to “command the fastball on both sounds of the plate, he’s got a good breaking ball, he’s a competitor and he’s got a good pickoff move.”
They did most of their damage in the second inning after a 1-2-3 first.
Blake Adamo led off with a single, advanced to third on a single by Connor Cutino and came around to score on an RBI single by Nick Sellitto. After an error and consecutive outs, Brett Boller lined a single to left field that scored Cutino but Sellitto was gunned down at home plate to end the inning up 2-0.
Hills West responded back with two runs of their own. T.J. Anatra led off with a single and Bobby Venezia smacked a double to advance him to third. Camarda hit an infield single to bring home their first run.
They tied it up on a botched suicide squeeze, but the pitch was also mishandled by Adamo which allowed Venezia to score and tie the game at 2-2.
Levenberg was light-out after that, retiring nine of the next 10 batters while his offense went to work.
In the top of the fourth, Cutino led things off with a single and advanced on Sellitto’s second hit of the day. After a fielder’s choice and strikeout, Boller lined a single to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead.
They added their fourth run in the sixth inning off reliever Ethan McMenamy on a perfectly executed bunt with the bases loaded by Dylan Flynn.
Camarda’s line was 5.2 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks.
With the loss, Hills West drops to 4-3 on the season. These two teams will be back in action on Wednesday at Hauppauge as Hills West looks to even the series.
