It’s hard to have a better inning than Ward Melville sophomore Logan Doran had in the ninth inning. The shortstop made an absolutely stunning diving play with his back to home plate to end the top of the ninth inning and followed it up with a lead off walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to deliver the Patriots a 4-3 victory in a crucial League I match up against Pat-Med.
After the game, Doran sounded mature beyond his years when asked about his emotions in such an emotionally-charged game.
“I made an error, so I had to come back and make a great play,” said the highly-sought after sophomore. “I just saw a fastball coming up and I put a good swing on it. This is a big rivalry between us,” he added.
Final: Ward Melville 4, Pat-Med 3
Sophomore Logan Doran hits walk-off HR one inning after making diving catch pic.twitter.com/JJHTkb39j6
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The game began with Pat-Med getting two runs in the first inning off previously unblemished Ben Brown (Siena-commit). Brad Malm battled bronchitis but smacked a one-out double and advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a sacrifice fly to right by Cam Lopez. Third-place hitter Josh Rovner walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, to third on the sac fly and scored on a balk by Brown.
Doran stated that the team is confident when Brown takes the hill because “he fills up the strike zone and it was another great game by him today.”
He settled down after that to fire four shutout innings while the Patriots bats went to work.
Pat-Med starter Billy Schramm was sharp out of the gate, firing two shutout innings before allowing a run in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Doran. He was taken out in the fifth with two outs in favor of Angelo Schiandra, who escaped a jam with a strikeout of Kyle Rafferty.
In the bottom of the sixth, Coach Frascogna went to ace Josh Rovner with runners on first & second and two outs when ninth-place hitter James Curcio smacked a game-tying two-run triple down the right field line to score Trevor Cronin and Joe Mirabella.
Both teams went scoreless in the seventh and eighth innings, which set the stage for Doran’s heroics in the ninth inning to send the Patriots off to the dramatic victory to improve to 8-2 on the season. He noted that it was his first walk-off home run of his career but he has had walk-off hits during travel ball.
These two teams play very evenly-matched games and it was a high-intensity game full of drama once again.
They will be back at it once again tomorrow at Pat-Med, as the Raiders look to even up the series.
