Coverage, photo and recap written by Julian Guevara.
The LI Nationals were the home team in a Town of Brookhaven Summer Varsity regular season matchup with the Suffolk County Seawolves. The Nationals called upon St. Anthony’s junior RHP Patrick Fullerton to start this one. The tall right-hander pitched an impressive four frames, giving him the win in a game that was ended due to a run-rule.
Fullerton demonstrated his impressive level of control only walking one batter in the first; he only faced four batters that inning. He would finish the game with 6 K’s and just one walk in a necessary win for the Nationals. They came in to this matchup just about even with the Seawolves at 1-3 (Seawolves have two ties) and Fullerton stepped up at the plate as well driving in the first two runs for the nationals in what would become a 8-run inning.
“I was just trying to throw strikes, get some downward action on my fastball and the fielders made the plays behind Me.” said Fullerton after the abbreviated game.
Fullerton would come to the plate three times in three innings going 2-for-2 with a walk and 2 RBI’s. The tall right-handed junior is looking forward to a summer of baseball, as it gives him a chance to work on his pitches. Fullerton did just that against the Seawolves working through their lineup with deceptive location and changes of speed.
“I just want to see the ball well, work on my pitching and bring it into next year to try and take home a championship.” Fullerton said.
His fastball compliments his devastating running slider-type pitch that was mixed in to majority of his strikeouts. St. Anthony’s is coming off a strong season that was ended prematurely in the playoffs, as they lost their first two games after going 13-4 in the regular season.
The Nationals swing the bat well but in this game majority of their 13 runs came as a result of walks and errors.
“My approach was to attack first pitch tonight,” Fullerton said. “I went to the cage before for a couple hours and just worked on staying in and driving the ball.”
The Nationals are set to pick up play on Saturday in a double header against the Huntington Blue Devils. The Seawolves are scheduled to play next on Monday as the visiting team against the NSBA Blue Devils.
