Final: Hauppauge 2, BBP 1 (11 innings)
WP: Pete SandersonRyan Levenberg hits walk-off sac fly
Rob Ray pitches CG pic.twitter.com/ANoE4lPiD0
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2018
Extra inning games typically do not feature complete games, and if they do, it’s usually not at the varsity level of high school in which a state-wide pitch limit is enforced. Robert Ray, Bayport-Blue Point‘s southpaw pitcher found a way to do so. The hard-throwing LHP pitched into the 11th inning against Hauppauge before sophomore Ryan Levenberg hit a sac fly to score Anthony Ferrara and give the Eagles a 3-2 victory.
Offense was at a premium with two outstanding pitchers on the mound. Hauppauge’s Kevin Sambuco was extremely effective as well, allowing only an RBI ground out in the first inning by Francesco Geraci to score Ray. He was lights-out from that point on, and it wasn’t until the fifth did he run into any trouble. In that inning, he allowed a one-out walk to Ray and a double to left field by Jake Giannico. After an intentional pass to Josh Monturo, he benefited from a missed suicide squeeze attempt by Geraci before striking him out to retire the side.
The Eagles tied it up in the fifth inning without the benefit of a hit. The Eagles are very successful with small ball and they used a leadoff walk by Adam Gorgone, a walk, a wild pitch and a sac fly by Ryan Mackey to even the score, 1-1.
Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Hofstra-commit Ryan Levenberg for driving in the game-winning run in the 12th inning to give Hauppauge the 2-1 win pic.twitter.com/iBkkppoM2V
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 21, 2018
That’s the way the score would stand for several innings as Sambuco finished his seven innings with an exclamation point, striking out the side in the top of the seventh.
Pete Sanderson came on in relief of Sambuco and did a terrific job of holding the fort. He pitched a scoreless eighth, ninth and 10th innings, allowing only a single in the eighth and 10th. They benefitted from a base running miscue by Ray attempting to stretch a single into a double, but getting thrown out by a hefty margin. With one-out and a runner on first, they could’ve bunted him into scoring position for the middle of the order.
Regardless, the Eagles still needed to get some offense going of their own and that happened when the No. 9 hitting Ferrara led off the 11th with double to left field and was sacrificed over to third by Brett Boller. Levenberg, who recently committed to Hofstra drove a high fastball to deep right-center field and he knew the game was over as soon as he hit off, jumping up-and-down as he was running to first. Ferrara easily scored.
Head Coach Josh Gutes coached a magnificent game, using his bench players perfectly. The Eagles will now travel to face Miller Place tomorrow at 4pm, who just lost to Shoreham-Wading River on a walk-off suicide squeeze in the 7th.
For BBP, it was a tough loss as they received an unbelievable effort from Ray. He was efficient and dominant, and he allowed only six hits in 10.1 IP. It was amazing to see how he continued his efficiency even as the innings wore on. They are now eliminated and finished their season with a record of 12-9.
