The Long Island Thunder improved to 2-1 in the Brian Moore Memorial tournament Saturday evening in an all-around great team performance with an 8-3 victory over Long Island Baseball.
After a scoreless inning and a half. The Thunder scored the first run of the game in the top of the second inning. Domenic Tuozzo lead the inning off with a single to left field and then he stole second base. With Tuozzo on second, Thomas Augeri hit a ground ball to the shortstop. The ground ball was fielded cleanly, but the shortstop under threw the first baseman which scored Tuozzo all the way from second base.
After holding LIB scoreless in the top of the third inning the Thunder wasted no time adding insurance to their 1-0 lead. Anthony Gazzola led off the inning and got on base after getting hit by a pitch. Gazzola then stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a balk by LIB starter Anthony Bellofatto putting the Thunder up 2-0.
In the top of the fourth inning, Michael Aplin and Bellofatto started LIB off with back to back singles. After a pass ball, Aplin advanced to third and Bellofatto advanced to second. One out later, Mac Cooper hit a screaming line to the third baseman which was caught and then the third basemen stepped on the bag for a double play as Aplin was caught too far off the base.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Thunder exploded for six runs. The inning began with a strikeout and a fly out to right field, but the third out was recorded nine batters after the second. The rally started with Augeri drawing a walk. After Augeri walked, Vincent Ricevuto hit a double to deep center field knocking in Augeri putting the Thunder up 3-0. Immediately after, Jake Scarry hit a single to left field, scoring Ricevuto. After the next two batters walked, leadoff hitter Anthony Crish hit a double putting the Thunder up 7-0. Crish later scored on an error by LIB’s third baseman, giving the Thunder an 8-0 lead.
In the top of the fifth inning LIB would score three runs, but to no avail as right after the game was called due to the time limit.
Long Island Thunder starting pitcher Anthony Gazzola had a tremendous outing, but his focus is on the prize. “We want to win a championship,” The righty said “and beat the team we lost to in our first game.”
