What started with an emotional ceremony to the family of slain NYPD Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo, ended with a dramatic 5-4 walk-off victory for North Babylon against the reigning Class AA Long Island Champs.
With North Babylon down to their final out trailing 4-2 against Kyle O’Neill (Felician-commit), Paul Tchinnis ripped a game-tying two-run single to center field with Argenis Escarfullery scoring the tying run. The game went to extra innings after Tom Gatto retired the next batter.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Bulldogs loaded the bases and scored on a walk-off error on a controversial play in which West Islip contested that the runner interfered with Greg Tsouprakos, but the run would stand resulting in a huge win for North Babylon.
Their starter Pat Solomita did a terrific job against a talented West Islip offense. The only damage occurred in the second and third innings when the Lions built up a 3-0 lead.
O’Neill smacked a long RBI triple to center field to score Tom Parson to get West Islip out to a 1-0 lead. They added another run on an RBI single by Joe Valentino to score O’Neill. They extended their lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning on a wild pitch that scored Joe Palmieri.
The Bulldogs were held hitless through the first four innings by O’Neill, who was on his game. He struck out six through four innings, including a stretch of four consecutive.
They got on the board in the fifth inning when they put together a two-out rally. Nick Elliot and Evan Christopher singled to load the bases for Tchinnis who lined a two-run single to cut the lead to 3-2.
North Babylon wins it on a walk-off error 5-4 at Bethpage Park pic.twitter.com/mReukCx8hG
aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) April 24, 2017
O’Neill was able to recover and fire a scoreless sixth inning and he went out for the seventh with a 4-2 after he helped himself with another RBI hit.
He walked two batters in the seventh, though, and Evan Christopher sacrificed both into scoring position to bring up Tchinnis who made him pay with his second two-run hit of the afternoon.
Solomita’s work was done after seven innings and he gave way to Christopher who worked around a leadoff single by Kevin DiCapua and escaped unscathed. That set the stage for the bottom of the eighth, which featured two walks and a single prior to the walk-off error.
“I really appreciated what the two towns did today,” said Solomita. “It felt like more than a game and that’s a special thing,” he added.
In regards to the game, he said “It was a great game for the team and a good win against a Long Island powerhouse. I couldn’t be more happy with the team’s performance.”
For the Lions, they drop to 9-3 on the season and these two teams will be back in action tomorrow (weather pending).
