THE WANTAGH WARRIORS ARE YOUR BACK TO BACK CLASS A CHAMPIONS!!!!!
FINAL: Wantagh 4 Garden City 2 pic.twitter.com/zX5QpNE4Uh aXcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) May 30, 2017
Despite the struggles, despite the losses, despite the deficits, Wantagh overcame every single obstacle in their path and are now back-to-back county champions.
Although winning may seem like a normal day at the office for the Wantagh Warriors, this wasn’t just any other victory. This was a victory with a great amount of emotion that solidified their team’s legacy.
On the mound for game 3 of the county championship, southpaw Brendan Haas got the start in the most significant game of his young career. He struggled early with his command, allowing 2 earned runs in the 1st inning, but would go on to retire the next 12 batters that followed.
“I just kept the ball low and kept throwing strikes knowing my teammates were behind me getting everything,” said Haas. He would go on to earn the complete game victory and wouldn’t allow an earned run past the first inning.
“Best feeling in the world,” said Haas when asked how it feels to be a back to back county champion.
Wantagh went down quietly through the first three innings at the plate, but once the 4th inning came around, everyone in attendance had a familiar feeling from last year’s county championship. Trevor Fagan got things started in the 4th inning with a solo home run to left field, and that was just the beginning of the rally.
The unsung hero of the ballgame, Jake Castellano, then tied the game up at 2 for Wantagh in the top of the 4th with an RBI Double, following the Pat Willix single.
“I put in a lot of work and I wasn’t getting the performance I wanted this season. I spent all of last night in the cage, all of this morning in the cage, spent the whole week in the cage and I put two good swings on the ball and they happened to fall in,” said Castellano.
The game would remain tied at two runs a piece through the first 5 innings, but when the 6th inning rolled around, the contest leaned heavily in favor of the Warriors mentally and physically.
The leadoff man in the top of the 6th inning was plunked, which gave Wantagh a huge opportunity to take control of this game. Castellano then stepped up to the plate and delivered for the second time in this ballgame, doubling to left field to put two runners in scoring position with nobody out.
Much like he has been since he was a sophomore, Hofstra-commit Anthony D’Onofrio proved that he is a big-game hitter, driving in the go-ahead run to take the lead in the late innings. Heading into the 7th, it was a 4-2 ballgame in favor of Wantagh and the Garden City crowd was basically taken out of the ballgame.
Much like his previous six innings, Haas set down the final few Garden City batters no problem and just like that, Wantagh was crowned back-to-back county champions.
“I got two championships under my belt with baseball and I couldn’t ask for more,” said Castellano.
With the victory, Wantagh is not done yet. They will face Shoreham-Wading River in the Class A Long Island Championship on Saturday at Old Westbury in what could be one of the most anticipated matchups in Long Island history. The pitching matchup will most likely be Brian Morrell versus Jimmy Joyce, two of the premiere arms in the state.
