.@jonahkarp82 with winning pitcher Sean Griffin following his dominant outing over the Pat-Med Raiders. pic.twitter.com/Ik1YLlDfXV
— Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) August 15, 2017
In an extremely tight and hard-fought game, the NSBA Blue Devils edged the Pat-Med Raiders in the Varsity Black semifinal earning the right to play tomorrow night in the Varsity Crossover semifinal featuring the remaining two teams from each division. The Devils were kept in the game behind a strong performance from their right-handed starter, Sean Griffin (Port Jefferson ’17).
“My strikes were good, I was hitting the zone, it felt great,” said Griffin.
The game would be knotted at zero going into the bottom of the sixth. That’s when NSBA came together to cause some discomfort for Pat-Med starter Frank Murphy, who was throwing a great game. With two outs and Payton Ginas (Port Jefferson ’20) on first after a throwing error, Kristopher Cheslock would work a walk.
This is where the course of the game was completely changed. With a 2-2 count, Ginas began to walk to third after Murphy threw a ball. The catcher would immediately throw the ball to the third basemen, and Ginas, seeing this develop would make a run for it and would appear to be tagged near third as the Raiders started to jog off the field.
“Once I saw him go to his motion I started stealing, thinking it was a full count, and then I saw it was a ball I started walking,” Ginas said. “I instantly thought they shouldn’t be throwing down, it’s a walk, but then he missed the tag.”
The tag was never cleanly applied and the umpire in the field was able to see the play clear enough to never call the runner out. This would put runners in scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Centereach class of ’17 catcher Ryan Dunn would seize the moment and drive a hard ground ball to right field that would score both Ginas and Cheslock.
“My fastball-curveball combo is my bread and butter.” Griffin said.
The hard-throwing righty would go the distance for his team, throwing a complete game shutout allowing just two hits and walking just one batter. His hard breaking curve induced plenty of ground ball outs; 11 to be exact.
Murphy would also put together an impressive start, allowing just two hits over five and two thirds innings striking out nine blue devils and walking five. The tall lefty would work out of a big time jam in the fifth inning. He would go in to the inning with a no hitter.
After striking out the first batter, Christian Santori would reach on a throwing error. The next batter would fly to center. Brian Skelton would then work a two-out walk, putting two runners on for James Cirimello. He would knock a line drive base hit to left to load the bases for Nick Jack. Murphy would dig deep and earn his biggest strikeout of the game on an outside fastball to the right-handed hitting Jack.
The Blue Devils have a quick turnaround, as they are scheduled to take on Smithtown Bulls Red from the Gold division. First pitch is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. from Medford Athletic Complex. Elite will take on Smithtown Bulls on the other field for the other Varsity semi final game with the same scheduled start time of 7:30 p.m.
