Matt Carey’s RBI Hit, Strong Pitching Leads Oceanside to 6-4 Victory Over Massapequa

In an emotionally-charged rivalry like Massapequa-Oceanside, it pays to keep things simple. That’s what Oceanside’s junior RHP Matt Carey did that today in a crucial victory against a conference rival.

“I just try to block everyone out, pitch the ball and strike everyone out,” said the NYIT-commit. Not only did he pitch very well–recording the win with six solid innings of work and 10 strikeouts, allowing three runs–he also smacked the go-ahead hit in the top of the seventh innings to propel Oceanside to the 6-4 victory.

He came out of the gate guns blazing with eight strikeouts through the first four innings, using a high-octane fastball and a quality curveball to keep the Chief hitters guessing.

Their offense got going against Dan Gdanski (Cortland-commit) in the top of the second inning with Carey’s leadoff double down the left field line. After he advanced to third on a ground ball to the right side and a walk, lead off man Jake Lazzaro ripped a two-run triple to right field to get the Sailors out to a 2-0 lead. The following batter, Austin Vlahakis, ripped an RBI single to center to increase the lead to 3-0.

Carey breezed through the first three innings, allowing just a walk and a single.

Matt Carey smacks an RBI single and Oceanside retakes the lead at 4-3 pic.twitter.com/GOwZH6uaCO

— aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) April 26, 2017

Reliever Nick Collins was brought in with two outs in the fourth inning and the bases loaded, but he escaped unscathed with a ground ball to second base to keep the score 3-0 and allow his team a chance to battle back.

They broke through in the bottom of the fifth inning against Carey when Johnny Castagnozzi led off with a walk. After a single, they scored on a fielder’s choice by Adam Mosca to make it 3-1. The following batter, Michael Cottone ripped an RBI triple to make it 3-2 and they tied it on an run-scoring single by Andrew Primm. Carey fanned Chris Wasson to end the rally and keep the score tied.

Chris DeSousa did a good job retiring Oceanside in the sixth inning and Carey fired a zero in the home half of the sixth.

In the top of the seventh, Dylan Judd led things off with a double to right center and Massapequa opted to intentionally walk Chris Siklas to set up the double play. It didn’t work out, as Tyler Judd hit an infield single to load the bases with none out to set the stage for Carey.

The junior ripped a single to left to put up Oceanside for good.

He noted that while he was looking to hit a home run, he wasn’t able to so he’ll settle for the single.

They added two insurance runs on a sacrifice fly and another RBI single by Lazzaro to increase the lead to 6-3. They wound up needing the runs, as reliever Ryan Powers struggled a bit and allowed a single, a walk and a wild pitch to score the Chiefs’ fourth run. After he hit a batter, Massapequa brought up the potential go-ahead run to the plate but he induced a ground out to second to end the threat and preserve the victory.

They improve to 9-1-1 on the season, while Massapequa falls to 9-2 on the season.