The Northport Tigers overcame an early 4-1 deficit against a difficult pitcher in Matt Lawlor of Bay Shore and put together two separate five-run innings in the third and fifth to defeat the reigning League II champs, 14-5.
The offense was led by Matt Lindley (3-for-4, 3 RBI) and George Sutherland, who went 2-4 with four RBI, including a two-run single in the fifth to break the game open.
“I think we had a different mindset knowing that we definitely needed to do something different this game offensively,” he said. “I think we came out and we took that approach and we did what we needed to do,” he added.
George Sutherland rips a two-run single and Northport leads 11-5 in the fifth pic.twitter.com/CmBaunzmSR
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Bay Shore came out of the gates swinging aggressively against Concordia-commit Alex Reuter.
Mike LiVorio drove home Damien Fanduiz with a fielder’s choice, Julian Barlett drove in Peter Baratta with an RBI single and Hermes Abreu scored on a 4-6-3 double play to get the Marauders off to a quick 3-0 lead.
The Tigers answered back with one of their own in the home half of the first on an unearned run that scored Lindley.
Bay Shore added one in the second on an RBI single by Fanduiz. Northport Head Coach John DeMartini noted that he was debating taking out his starter at that point.
“He was on his way out,” said DeMartini. “We spoke a little bit about how he needed to re-group and focus on what he needed to do,” he added.
Reuter did just that, he figured it out and wound up firing the complete game. He allowed just one more run the rest of the way while the Tigers bats exploded in the middle innings.
They chased Lawlor out after 2.2 IP, thanks to a rally which they started after they had two outs an nobody on in the third. A walk to D.L. Rodriguez, single by Reuter, walk to Kevin Nobs and a bases-loaded walk to Kevin Cryer-Hassett got them on the board. Lindley lined a two-run single and Sutherland followed with a two-run triple to give them the lead for good.
After going down quietly in the home half of the fourth, they mounted another rally in the fifth–scoring five runs thanks to a two run-double by Chris Caravousanos, and the big hit by Sutherland to put the game in hand.
DeMartini noted that the bats had been struggling entering the day, but they certainly figured it out today.
Molloy-commit Jake McCarthy also had a single, sacrifice fly and a walk.
With the victory, they improved to 4-4 while Bay Shore dropped to 4-2. They two teams will be back in action on Saturday for the rubber game of the three-game set.
