When two League 1 foes square off, it always promises to be a great ballgame . The Ward Melville Patriots won the game, 5-3, with Chris Buehler earning the win over Sachem East‘s ace Roman Dorosh.
This matchup proved to be a gritty battle between two rival teams. LIU Brooklyn-commit Buehler earned the win after tossing five and two thirds innings. The crafty lefty threw five innings of three-hit ball but ran into trouble in the sixth.
Buehler was able to breathe easy on the mound, however, because Ward Melville’s offense put three runs up for him in the first. Second base and shortstop combo Brady and Logan Doran started the inning off with back-to-back base hits, with Brady reaching third on Logan’s hit. A wild pitch from Dorosh produced a close sliding play at home but the tag was too late, giving Ward Melville a 1-0 lead.
“We had a great pitcher on the mound today [Dorosh] who is probably one of the best pitchers in Suffolk County,” said Ward Melville head coach Lou Petrucci. “So we had to get some base runners and get them moving a bit to keep their infield on its toes.”
After a line out and a hit by pitch Max Nielsen was called upon to lay down a sac bunt, which he did, advancing the runners to second and third and setting the table for Trevor Cronin. The senior first baseman knocked a well-struck base hit that drove in both runners and gave WM a 3-0 lead.
“I know [Dorosh] throws hard so I was just trying to throw my hands out there and catch barrel on ball,” Cronin said. “I just I see the ball well out of [Dorosh’s] hand; we’ve faced him three times now so I know how to approach him.”
Buehler cruised along allowing just one hit until the fifth inning. Dylan Stalzer led the inning off with a base hit, his second hit of the day. After the next batter struck out, Stalzer was picked off at first in a controversial non-balk call that had the Sachem East dugout thoroughly displeased.
Ryan Micheli, however, stepped up next and hit a line drive right at Buehler that he gloved but did not secure, allowing Micheli to reach first. The next batter worked a walk, but Buehler dug deep and forced the nine-hitter to ground out to first, escaping unharmed.
“It’s on to the next one, no matter who they put out there I have confidence in this team that we can get the job done.” Cronin added.
Dorosh also didn’t get into any trouble until the fifth inning. This time it would be Nielsen with the RBI single, driving in Farino. Cronin followed with a base hit of his own and just like that WM had two runners on with one out.
Nielsen then stole third, forcing the catcher to overthrow the third baseman, which allowed Nielsen to score easily. Dorosh settled down and finished the inning by retiring the next two batters in order, stopping the bleeding at 5-0.
“[West Islip] is a very good team,” Petrucci said. “They’ve won so many league and county titles now we really have our work cut out for us tomorrow.”
Sachem came out swinging in the top of the sixth. Leadoff hitter Dan Palermo got the inning going with a leadoff single. After a fly out to center Don Wille reached on an error. Craig Leonard followed with a hard-hit grounder that forced another costly error that scored Palermo and advanced the runners to second and third with one out.
Stalzer then followed with a hard groundball out to second that scored Wille.
Sachem didn’t stop there. Sal Caricato stepped up and drove in Leonard on a base hit that cut the deficit to just two runs. Micheli followed with a single of his own that forced Buehler from the game.
Luckily for WM, their reliever came in and got the job done. Drake Eggleston walked the first batter he faced, but came back to strike out the next batter looking. In the seventh he ran into some trouble after walking Dorosh and surrendering a base hit to Wille. The experienced reliever earned himself the save and struck out the next two batters.
Ward Melville is set to take on West Islip tomorrow at West Islip. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. They will likely send Ethan Farino to the mound. Sachem East will host Walt Whitman tomorrow in an elimination game, first pitch is also scheduled for 4 p.m.
