Babylon senior pitcher Shaun Kaminski went head-to-head with Center Moriches junior LHP Liam Pulsipher–one of the best pitchers in the county. Kaminski fired a complete game, recording the 3-0 victory with five strikeouts, five hits and two walks.
“It’s nice to finally beat Pulsipher, we dropped two games to him, the one last year in the county championship, 1-0, and early in the season, 3-1,” said Babylon head coach Victor Manzella. “I couldn’t be more proud of my boys, I couldn’t be more proud of Shaun [Kaminski]; the way he pitched and it was good to get a W in the first game of the playoffs.”
The SUNY Old Westbury-commit opened up the scoring for Babylon after leading off the sixth inning with a single. Kaminski came across on an error off the bat of Joe Rende. This would end up being the only earned run for the Stony Brook-commit, Pulisipher, who struck out six with two walks and three hits over six innings of work.
“It was great, especially to get the first one, going down with one in double-elimination is tough cause then you have to win out,” Kaminski said.
Pulisipher did not return for the seventh inning after experiencing some calf tightness that bothered him at the beginning of the sixth. Sigerson replaced Pulisipher and was charged with two earned runs.
Flagler-commit Kenneth Gordon
John Pesce worked a one-out walk in the eight spot of the lineup and Antonio Tufano followed with a double in the gap. Pesce was able to score on a pitch in the dirt with Kenneth Gordon at the plate that also advanced Tufano to third. Gordon went on to bring Tufano home with a sac fly to left making the score, 3-0.
In the bottom half of the inning, Center Moriches was threatening with runners on 1st & 2nd with one-out, but Kaminski was able to coax a rally-killing 6-4-3 DP to end the threat.
“It was a total team effort. My catcher [Ryan Clarke] and myself were in sync, bottom to top all great at bats; our nine hitter, Antonio [Tufano] went 2-for-4.” Kaminski said.
The bottom third of the lineup ended up producing the most for Babylon, finishing 3-for-7 with two walks. Tufano finished the day 2-for-2 with a walk, run, and a stolen base. The top third of Babylon’s lineup, however, finished 2-for-11, with both hits coming from Kaminski.
“As a three seed there’s no pressure, everyone just kind of assumed we would get in and lay over and die but we feel good, real good,” Manzella said. “We were 4-1 coming in to the playoffs and now we are 1-0 in the playoffs; we feel positive and we feel confident going in to tomorrow’s game against Mattituck.”
The Babylon Panthers are set to continue their playoff run tomorrow, May 15 at Mattituck. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. Center Moriches is set to face the losing team on Thursday, May 18; first pitch is also scheduled for 4 p.m.
billyp
Jr Liam Pulispher
Good game Babylon