Coach Parsolano on his team’s 4-3 victory over Next Level pic.twitter.com/Ljf5WzUA2j
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 10, 2018
When you have an abundance of quality arms, it makes life much easier.
LI Titans Head Coach Paul Parsolano made that clear following his team’s 4-3 victory over Next Level Baseball on Tuesday evening at Mitchell Field. He brought in RHP Rob Milopsky (Rocky Point 2019) with runners on 1st & 2nd with 0 out in the 6th inning to protect a 4-3 lead after the previous four batters all reached base via hits to cut the lead to one-run. Milopsky came on and struck out the side in the sixth and cruised through the seventh inning with three ground outs.
Milopsky stated that he knew when he came in with runners on he “needed to throw strikes to finish the job”, he certainly did that fanning the No. 8, 9 & 10 batters in succession to maintain the lead.
The Titans got out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning against starting pitcher Ryan De La Rosa, the big 6’3″ RHP for Next Level. A two-out walk to the emerging E.J. Exposito (St. John the Baptist 2019) and a stolen base put a runner in scoring position for Charles Rainone (Deer Park 2018), who smoked an RBI double to left field to take an early 1-0 lead.
The lead was short lived as Next Level evened things up in the second inning on a wild pitch that scored Pitt-commit Luke Napolitano (Kellenberg 2019).
The Titans answered back in the third inning on a bases loaded walk to Exposito, which scored Milopsky–who led off with a well-struck single to left. They added two runs in the fourth on some sloppy play by Next Level. Justin Ventura led off and reached on an E5 on an errant throw that allowed him to get to second. A walk to Matty Tempone (Smithtown East 2019) and back-to-back errors off the bats of Milopsky and Jake Pierre (Sachem North 2019) allowed them to open up a 4-1 lead.
Nick Incalcaterra came on in relief of Greg Dorfman, who fired the first four innings, and threw a scoreless fifth inning. The 6’4″ RHP had two strikeouts over his scoreless inning. The Titans had to feel comfortable with their lead and dominant bullpen, but Next Level mounted a rally in the sixth inning against Charlie Cucchiara (East Meadow 2019). Back-to-back doubles by Matt Yip (Herricks 2019) and Christian Amoruso (Smithtown West 2019), and back-to-back singles by Napolitano and Helfgott briefly put a scare into the Titans but Milopsky came on and put out the fire.
The Titans are coming off an impressive weak at Perfect Game’s WWBA in Georgia, in which they began the week 6-0 but lost their playoff games. Still, it was an impressive week and several of their players had strong performances. They bounced right back tonight with another win in Boys of Summer Scout Division 17U play.
