LI Strong wins 7-2. Here’s pitcher Steven Murphy on what was working for him, as well as the accomplishment of winning 40 games as a team this season. pic.twitter.com/CTULDfTX9t
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 11, 2018
To kick off the East Coast Nationals tournament, Long Island Strong defeated Team Steel by a score of 7-2. A strong offensive showing, as well as an excellent performance on the mound by Steven Murphy led to the victory.
Murphy started off the game strong, striking out the first batter he faced. Although he then allowed a single, the next two batters were also retired via strikeout.
In the bottom half of the first, LI Strong went to work to give their pitcher a lead. Tyler Solomon was on the mound for Team Steel, and he struggled early. A leadoff single and a pair of walks loaded the bases for Brad Sakellarides. He hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop that looked like it would result in at least one out for sure, potentially a double play. However, the shortstop threw the ball away, and two runs scored, giving LI Strong a 2-0 lead. Ethan Angress, with runners on the corners, hit a line drive to right field to extend the lead to 3-0. Solomon then settled down, and struck out the next three batters to escape further trouble.
Neither team was able get much more going offensively until the bottom of the third inning. Sakellarides and Angress worked walks to lead off the inning. Eric Bernstein was then hit by a pitch to load the bases. With a chance to do some damage, Jake Parisi came through, smoking a triple to right-center field, giving his team a 6-0 lead. With Anthony Giovanniello at the plate, LI Strong called for a squeeze play. Giovanniello successfully got the bunt down, bringing across another run and extending the lead to 7-0.
Following the successful squeeze, Solomon’s day on the mound was done. Frank Murphy replaced Solomon on the mound, and escape the inning without allowing any further damage.
Team Steel finally got on the board in the top of the fourth inning. With two runners on, and two outs, DJ Brown hit a hard line drive to center field. Both runners came in to score, cutting Steel’s deficit to 7-2.
The score of 7-2 stood for the remainder of the game, which only lasted 5 ½ innings due to the 1 hour and 50 minute time limit.
The top of the sixth inning would be the last. It was a quick inning for Murphy, who mixed allowed a single between two outs. However, the runner was quickly erased when he was thrown out at second, attempting to steal.
On the day, Steven Murphy allowed two runs on seven hits, while striking out eight batters. On how he had success on the mound, he mentioned “working first pitch strikes, it was really important to get ahead of the batters”. He went on to further say, “we were working with a pretty sizable lead the whole game so it made it pretty easy to work ahead and provide a good pitching outing for the team”.
The victory for LI Strong, besides being their first win of this tournament, marked the 40th victory of the season for them. On being a part of the accomplishment, Murphy said “it felt great. Being a part of that achievement for the team was just great”, going on further to say “all in all, it’s been a great experience the whole time”.
