North Fork defeats Riverhead, 3-2, with JC Santini notching the go-ahead hit. He’s our @DigmiNation Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/V3mn546GYd
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 11, 2018
The first seven games of the North Fork Osprey’s season did not go exactly as planned. In fact, things went nearly as poorly as possible. Bill Ianniciello‘s squad opened up the summer with a 0-6-1 record, leaving them in last place in the league. Luckily for the Ospreys, it’s a long summer and thanks to the heroics of JC Santini, the comeback game starts now. The California-native supplied the go-ahead hit in the top of the eighth to give North Fork (1-6-1) a 3-2 victory over the Riverhead Tomcats (3-2-1).
It was a pitcher’s duel early at Veterans Memorial Park. Austin Smith got the ball for the Ospreys and was damn-near perfect through five innings. The Huffman, Texas native surrendered a single to leadoff hitter Luke Oliphant before picking him off at first and retiring the next 15 straight Tomcat hitters.
On the other side, it was pitchers by committee for Riverhead. Josh Rovner started with the ball and pitched three hitless innings before being replaces by Tyler Henry. Henry went on to pitch into the seventh, allowing no runs and just three hits.
The game was played very quickly at the expense of poor hitting as there were only three hits through the first five innings of play. Things started to pick up in the bottom of the sixth when Riverhead made the most of their runners on base. Trevor Fagan drew a lead-off walk then advanced to third on a single from Miles Kelly. The next batter was Matt Daller and he popped the ball up deep to left field, giving Fagan more than enough time to tag up and score the game’s first run.
The Tomcats would hold on to a 1-0 lead going into the top of the eighth. But it was then when North Fork decided to heat up and end their losing ways. Alec Fauvell replaced Henry on the mound and retired Tyler White for the first out. That would be the only out Fauvell would get. He gave up a double to Brad Malm before issuing walks to Tyrese Clayborne and Sean Hogan. Joe Murphy was then tasked to get Riverhead out of trouble, but with the bases loaded and North Fork’s cleanup hitter Steele Netterville at the plate, it was too much to handle. Netterville flew out to center, advancing Hogan and Clayborne while Malm got across to tie the game. Santini was up next and with two outs hit a booming double to over the head of left fielder Ben Jackson. Clayborne and Hogan scored easily and Santini clapped his hands in excitement at second.
The two runs proved to crucial in the bottom of the ninth. Nicholas Lucchese was the batter with two outs and a runner on first. Lucchese hit an ordinary groundball to Clayborne at second, but Clayborne misfired badly on the throw and created chaos. Lucchese tried to take second after the error, but Brendan Bean recovered the ball at first to get him in a rundown. Daller scored all the way from first as the Osprey infield was focused on Lucchese, but it didn’t matter as Clayborne chased Lucchese down and tagged him for the final out of the game.
North Fork’s 3-2 victory is its first of the season and the team will look to bring that same energy when it faces Riverhead again tomorrow, this time at Cochran Park. Our @DigmiNation Player of the Game is Santini who finished the afternoon one-for-four, the one being the two-run double that decided the game.
