Plattsburgh State junior pitcher Patrick Bryant, with the help of some outstanding defense, held the strong Tomcats lineup to two runs. Bryant went seven and two-thirds innings, allowing two earned runs off eight hits; he struck out three and walked none in the Road Warrior’s 4-2 victory.
Hofstra senior Steven Foster stepped up for the Road Warriors in the bottom of the fourth knocking an RBI double off the fence to bring in sophomore Garrett Heaton after he led off the inning with a single.
“Coach told me to be aggressive on first pitch, because I was taking a lot of first pitches,” said Foster. “I was aggressive and just got a good piece of wood on it today.”
Freshman outfielder for Farleigh Dickinson, Mike Veit, drove in foster with a clutch seeing eye ground ball single to right field to give the Road Warriors a, 2-1, lead. Hofstra freshman outfielder Sean Rausch finished with an impressive day at the plate, as he drove in Veit with a single that gave the right fielder trouble allowing the speedy Rausch to reach third after extending their lead to, 3-1.
“It was a good team win. Pat Bryant threw an extremely good game, [Brandon] Bonnano come in and shut it out,” Foster said. “Good hitting all around and it just feels good to get a win and I only think we are going to go up from here.”
The Road Warriors were coming off two losses this week, one of which was to Riverhead on Monday, as LI failed to hold on to their, 6-0, lead. The 6’5 righty [Bryant] knew what needed to be done and put together a quality start for his team, working out of a few jams throughout. Bonnano, the Stony Brook freshman RHP, was called upon with runners on second and third with two outs in the eighth inning. Bonnano got the job done getting the Riverhead DH George Bell to ground out to the shortstop. His work wasn’t done though, as Binghamton sophomore Alex Baratta led off the ninth with his third hit of the day; he finished 3-for-4.
“Today it was all about getting comfortable for me, my last two starts I wasn’t really as comfortable with my pitches, so I worked on that this week.” Bryant said.
Bryant demonstrated his comfort and command throughout this one as retired the side in order in the seventh. This was directly after the Road Warriors jumped ahead to a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Rausch knocked a one out single and after a wild pitch he stole third and was only 90 feet away from home with one out. He ended up scoring the Road Warriors fourth run on a wild pitch. Rausch finished the day 2-for-4 with a run and a stolen base. The Tomcats leadoff batter, LeMoyne senior outfielder Brian Cox, finished 3-for-4 with three singles and an RBI after striking out in his first at bat. The Riverhead 8-hitter, Yale sophomore Dai Dai Otaka, also had an impressive day at the plate going 2-for-3 with a double. Otaka also scored both of the Tomcats’ runs. Otaka brings some high quality experience to the Tomcats after being Yale’s everyday shortstop this past season recording 37 hits in 46 games.
Riverhead is set to pick up play Friday morning. They are scheduled to face South Hampton at 9 a.m. and West Hampton at 12:30 p.m. at Baseball Heaven. Long Island is also set to play a double header on Friday morning/afternoon at Baseball Heaven and they are scheduled to face North Fork and Sag Harbor.
