Long Island forces a game 3 in the @HamptonsLeague semifinal and our Player of the Game is winning pitcher, Sal Zafonte. The Cortland lefty tossed 3.1 innings in relief, surrendering only two hits. pic.twitter.com/884jQyzvsE
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 27, 2018
The defending HCBL champions were playing for their season Friday afternoon. Long Island lost its opening playoff game to Westhampton at home Thursday, meaning a loss would spoil its opportunity to repeat. But Friday’s game went much differently than Thursday’s and the Road Warriors proved deserving of their name. Neal Heaton’s squad never trailed in a 6-2 victory at Aviator Field to even up the semifinal series at one game apiece.
Westhampton sent their best starting pitcher to the hill in Tyler Thorington. The league’s regular season ERA champion pitched seven innings Sunday in the team’s second-to-last game before the postseason and was ready to go in the Aviators’ first playoff game. Thorington would face Long Island’s Chris Mott, who earned a no-decision in his only start against Westhampton this summer after tossing five scoreless innings.
Neither pitcher gave an inch in the first two innings, but the Road Warriors got inspired in the third. Eric Roubal reached second on a lead-off hit, then Joe Rosselli reached first on a bunt that advanced his teammate to third. Patrick Lagravinese came up to the plate and scorched a ground ball to Michael Amandola at second. Amandola could not field the grounder, both Rosselli and Lagravinese were safe and Long Island was on the board. Later that frame, Matt Codispoti walked and Matthew Stepnoski was hit by a pitch to double their lead to 2-0.
Things stayed quiet until the top of the fifth. Thorington started to find his stuff after a rough third inning, but he let one pitch hang too much and Marcos Perivolaris made him pay. The SUNY Cortland-senior crushed a solo home run to break Thorington’s streak of six straight retired batters.
While Mott was exceptional for Long Island, Westhampton had its chances to score. The Aviators left six runners stranding in their first four innings without scoring a run and again had two in the bottom of the fifth. Coach Heaton saw Mott was making it too close for a fourth consecutive frame and pulled him in favor of Sal Zafonte with two outs. Zafonte was tasked with sitting down Ethan Hajdukovic, who hit a pair of doubles in his first two at-bats. The lefty’s confidence was obvious from the moment he took the ball and he struck out Hajdukovic to end the threat.
The score held at 3-0 going into the top of the seventh. Thorington did not go out for the start of the inning as Charlie Barbieri signaled for Zach Hersh. It was a brief outing for Hersh as he would face only three batters, surrendering a run and getting only one out in his time. Ryan Karp took over after Perivolaris’ RBI single and it did not take long for Long Island to readjust. Codispoti sent the second pitch he saw a long way over the fence to put the Road Warriors up 6-0.
The game got away from Westhampton in a hurry and the pitching from Long Island made sure the Aviators were never back in it. Following his one-out fifth inning, Zafonte faced a perfect six batters to get out of the sixth and seventh frames unscathed. The one blemish to his playoff resume was a solo homer he allowed to Tristan Welch in the bottom of the eighth, but he left his team in good hands when he exited ahead of the ninth.
Long Island had a comfortable 6-1 lead entering the bottom of the ninth, but a questionable decision from coach Heaton that inning may haunt the team in Saturday’s game. Heaton elected to send closer Brandon LaManna to finish game after he pitched the ninth inning on Thursday. It took LaManna 16 pitches to end game 2 and he surrendered a home run to Amandola in the process. Nonetheless, game 3 is confirmed as the Road Warriors even up the series with a 6-2 victory.
Our Player of the Game is Sal Zafonte, who finished with a line of two hits, one earned run and four strikeouts in over three innings of relief. The defending champion Road Warriors head back home to host the Aviators Saturday in the winner-take-all semifinal finale. The victor of that game takes on the winner of the Sag Harbor/ Riverhead series, that will also be determined Saturday.
