Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Dan Palermo who hit a leadoff HR in Sachem East’s 8-2 victory pic.twitter.com/vnDXcHOMm3
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 18, 2018
When you play a team for the fifth time of the season, there are no surprises. The cream rises to the top on merit alone and Sachem East rose to the occasion from the first at bat–when center fielder and Iona-commit Dan Palermo launched a solo shot to left off Max Nielsen on their way to an 8-2 victory over Ward Melville.
With the victory, the Arrows advance to face West Islip in the finals of Bracket #4.
“We always like facing Ward Melville–they’re our biggest rival, we always get hyped for these kind of games and we love it,” said Palermo.
They continued to tack on runs. Craig Leonard and Dylan Stalzer added run-scoring hits in the first inning, which would be all the offenses needed in this one. Going into the game, it seemed runs would be at a premium against the UCONN-commit Nielsen, but he struggled to find his command from the get-go and battled himself.
In the second inning, the Arrows capitalized on some poor defense by the Patriots. Leadoff batter Jimmy Baker hit a routine fly ball to left field that was simply dropped. The following batter dropped down a sacrifice bunt but it was mishandled by Nielsen. Palermo hit a fly ball to right field that allowed Baker to move to third and he scored on a wild pitch. Roman Dorosh stepped up and ripped an RBI single to right field to extend the lead to 5-0.
Final: Sachem East 8, Ward Melville 2
WP: Joe GiglioThe Arrows move on to face No. 2 West Islip tomorrow pic.twitter.com/GMNGPANhpc
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 18, 2018
Nielsen had a 1-2-3 third inning but the Arrows would make up for it in the fourth inning when the first two batters drew walks and Dorosh stepped up and launched a game-breaking 3-R home run to left field to open up an 8-0 lead in the fourth.
The game was effectively over, especially with Arrows’ RHP Joe Giglio throwing strikes, and using his defense. He fired five shutout innings before giving way to Nick Comunale. He fired a scoreless sixth inning but ran into some trouble in the seventh inning. He loaded the bases and then walked Brady Doran to bring in the Patriots’ first run, they added a run on a fielder’s choice by Logan Doran, but reliever Andrew Scavo came on and put out the fire to send his team onto the next round.
Sachem East will have another challenge ahead of them facing a team that has won 16 straight games, and has won two Long Island Championships since 2014. The Lions have a high-octane offense that has averaging 10 runs per game led by League 4 MVP and Fordham-commit Jake Guercio.
Their best friend may be the weather. If it gets postponed, ace Dorosh can come back on full-rest on Monday.
