Wantagh’s Head Coach Keith Sachs on the 8-1 victory. The 2-time Class A Champs advance with their victory over North Shore pic.twitter.com/W0ZZtIZKx3
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 16, 2018
The No. 1 Wantagh Warriors topped the No. 5 North Shore Vikings 8-1, playing most of the game at Wantagh High school on Tuesday, before finishing up at Molloy College’s Mitchel Field on Wednesday due to a rain delay.
The two-time defending Long Island Class A champs came out firing early and never took their foot off the gas as they come one step closer on their quest for a three-peat.
“We’ve been winning games but not always putting it together,” Wantagh head coach Keith Sachs said. “We hit the ball well, threw the ball well, made some clutch defensive plays…really I think we played our best game of the year.”
Anthony D’Onofrio opened the bottom of the first with a leadoff homer on the first pitch, setting the tone for a powerful Wantagh offense. Patrick Willix took a page out of D’Onofrio’s book two batters later, going yard on the first pitch he saw to give himself some run support and his team an early 2-0 lead.
Over 24 hours later, we have our final score!
Wantagh 8, North Shore 1WP: Pat Willix (6 IP, 1 ER)
Willix also went 3-for-3 with a homer and a double pic.twitter.com/ck41odjGrs
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 16, 2018
Willix was dominant for Wantagh through out the contest, both on the mound and in the batter’s box. The lefty pitched six innings, frustrating North Shore while allowing just 1 run on 4 hits. His focus on the mound seemed to carry over into the box, where he went 3-for-3 with a single, double and home run.
“When I was out there, I wasn’t trying to overpower anyone,” Willix said of his performance on the mound. “I was just trying to pound strikes, get ahead and make them hit the ball to my fielders because I have all the faith in them.”
Wantagh picked up where they left off in the bottom of the second, plating three more runs on an RBI double from Ryan Murphy and a 2-RBI bloop single from D’Onofrio the very next at-bat.
D’Onofrio finished the contest going 2-for-3 at the plate with the 3 RBIs, a homer and a walk. Murphy, meanwhile, went 2-for-3 as well with 2 RBIs. The second of Murphy’s RBIs came in the third inning, when his team tacked two more runs on the scoreboard with back-to-back RBI singles from Jake Castellano and Murphy.
All seven of those runs came at the expense of North Shore RHP Robert Clarke, who left the mound after throwing 4 innings and striking out three.
North Shore was finally able to string some hits together in the fourth inning when Will Scarola, Mike Tedesco and David Aufiero hit consecutive singles, with Aufiero driving in his team’s lone RBI.
His brother, Marc Aufiero, came on in relief in the fifth and pitched 1.2 solid innings, but was susceptible to Wantagh’s power and couldn’t stop the Warriors from hitting their third home run of the game.
That homer was courtesy of Castellano, who had a great day at the plate going 3-for-3 with 2 RBIs on two singles and a homer. The deep shot brought the Vikings’ deficit to 8-1 and stomped out any sort of momentum with a single swing of the bat.
With the win, Wantagh will recieve a playoff bye, while North Shore will battle for their playoff lives against the winner of Mepham and Seaford.
