Our Player of the Game is Louis Antos: 2/4, HR, RBI, 2 R. One of the league’s best spoke with @jpaura24 after aiding Riverhead past Sag Harbor. The Tomcats host No. 2 Long Island in game 1 of the best-of-three championship series Monday. #SAGvRH pic.twitter.com/wKXmObbTab
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 28, 2018
The Riverhead Tomcats are celebrating their best season in franchise history. They secured the No. 1 seed in the HCBL playoffs for the first time in their 10-year history and earlier this week, they got their first playoff win since 2012. On Saturday, Riverhead accomplished another feat it hasn’t conquered in six years: make the HCBL Championship Series. In a winner-take-all game 3, the Tomcats grinded out a 4-1 victory over the Sag Harbor Whalers to earn a date with the Long Island Road Warriors.
Each team went with a brand new starting pitcher for game 3. Milton Vrionis appeared in 13 games for Sag Harbor in the regular season, all out of the bullpen. As for Casey Aubin, the only start he had this summer was in the HCBL All-Star Game. He had the exact same number of relief appearances as Vrionis and didn’t pitch more than two innings in an outing all season.
In his lone start for Riverhead, Aubin had an outstanding performance. The righty went a season-long four innings and surrendered only five hits. The only earned run he allowed was to Kros Bay. The Oklahoma-native hit a sacrifice fly in his last frame to score Brandon Miller, right before Thomas Pipolo popped out to end the inning.
It was obvious from the jump that Riverhead had a chip on its shoulder. The Whalers snapped the Tomcats’ eight-game win streak Friday with an 11-5 win to even up the semifinal series. Louis Antos opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a long solo homer off Vrionis to put his team up 1-0.
The offense did not stop in the second. Xavier Vargas got hit by a pitch and Connor Echols reached base on an error to set up Josh Greene. The HCBL all-star smacked a single for his first RBI of the playoffs to double the Riverhead lead.
The Tomcats’ two MVP candidates came up big to make their impact in the bottom of the third. Antos muscled a single in his second at-bat, then Eduardo Malinowski scorched a double to score the speedy Antos from first. The next batter was Vargas and he got back at Vrionis for pelting him in the second by singling to score Malinowski.
The score was 4-1 heading into the eighth and Sag Harbor had an opportunity to get back in the game. Joe Murphy walked Connor Anderson and Bay with two outs before he was replaced by Beau Keathley. Keathley then walked Pipolo to load the bases for Sam Cachola. The Riverhead closer, who only allowed one run all season, regained his composure and got Cachola to ground out and end the inning.
Keathley would go out to close the ninth and retired the Whalers in order. The Tomcats won the game 4-1 to advance to their third championship series in franchise history. Riverhead goes to battle with the Long Island Road Warriors, who won the league title in their inaugural season last summer. Long Island clinched their spot Saturday with a 12-6 victory over Westhampton in game 3.
Our Player of the Game is Louis Antos. The regular season batting champ went two-for-four at the dish with an RBI and two runs scored.
The championship series starts Monday at 4:00 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park. Follow us online at axcessbaseball.com and on Twitter @axcessbaseball all week for extended coverage.
