by Frank Farnacci
A chilly March afternoon did not deter Half Hollow Hills East’s Reis Henderson in his first varsity start as he led Hills East to a 2-1 victory over Smithtown West in Dix Hills today.
Henderson persevered while working in-and-out of trouble through the first three innings hurling a two hitter with seven timely strikeouts over 5.2 IP.
“He had a little bit of a high pitch count early as he worked in-and-out of trouble”, said Hills East Manager, Tim Belz. “He gave up only two hits which was phenomenal and kept us in the whole game. His strikeouts were in big spots and he really gutted it out.”
The game started with Henderson walking the first two batters but then he settled down getting consecutive fielder’s choices and a foul out to keep Smithtown West off the scoreboard. In the second inning, Henderson worked out of a leadoff walk and two infield errors to leave Smithtown West with the bases loaded and nothing to show for it. Smithtown West’s Brian Delaney was equal to the task early throwing three innings of two hit shutout ball.
Smithtown West broke through in the top of the third. After a leadoff walk to Christian Amoruso who stole second base, Henderson stuck out Smithtown’s three and four hitters. Amoruso would steal third base and score on a throwing error before Henderson would strike out Smithtown’s five hitter.
In the bottom of the 4th, Hills East would answer.
With one out, Jacob Brigatti singled and advanced to third on two wild pitches to the next batter, Matt Hogan. Hogan was eventually hit by a pitch and subsequently stole second. Henderson came to the plate next and helped his own cause by dropping down a perfect safety squeeze that he beat out to first to tie the game. After a walk to Eric Tow, Mike DeFillippo scorched a ground ball that was snagged by Smithtown’s first baseman, John Pawlowski, but his only play was to first allowing Hogan to score the go-ahead, and eventual, winning run.
It was a tightly contested game that saw Smithtown’s Mike Falco contribute two hits, while Vanderbilt-commit Matt Hogan garnered the save over the final 1.1 innings.
The Thunderbirds will be back in action next week as they look to build off this win.
