Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Brandon Buchan. He was the winning pitcher, struck out 8 over four shutout innings. He also drove in a run in MacArthur’s mercy victory over New Hyde Park pic.twitter.com/eVk51W3YOj
Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 26, 2018
With a loaded staff of seniors last year, there was no spot in the rotation for him.
This season, Brandon Buchan has came out with a vengeance winning his fifth game of the season to go along with two HRs at the plate. The southpaw was overpowering today, touching 87 MPH, striking out nine and allowing just one hit over four shutout innings in MacArthur’s 10-0 win over New Hyde Park.
The game was delayed roughly 15 minutes due to a late arriving bus for New Hyde Park on Senior Day for MacArthur. The game was decided only a few minutes after that when the Generals put up a three-spot in the first inning off starter Conor Jacoby.
Leadoff batter Joe Keller led off with a single, Buchan was hit with a pitch and Peter Zielinski drove them both in with a 2-R single. The following batter, Joey Ricciardi, extended the lead with an RBI double.
Buchan was lights-out from the first batter of the game.
The big southpaw struck out two batters in the first and two in the second, working around two base on balls.
In the bottom of the second, Keller ripped an RBI triple to right-center field to make it 4-0. A sac fly by Joe Apollo and an error by the third baseman extended it to 6-0.
Buchan struck out the side in the third, his most dominant inning of the outing–two on fastballs and one on a great curveball.
The Generals added one run in the third inning to make it 7-0, but they completely broke it open in the fourth when things really spiraled out of control. They sent 13 batters to the plate, scored seven runs on seven hits and benefited from three errors.
Reliever Anthony Esposito came on in relief of Buchan to fire a 1-2-3 seventh inning to end the game in a mercy.
The Generals are rolling right now, winners of five straight, looking like one of the most complete teams in Nassau County Class A. With the combination of Buchan and Joe Keller, they are well equipped to match up with any team in the county.
