Port Jefferson Head Coach Jesse Rosen talks about his team’s 14-5 victory over Comsewogue pic.twitter.com/6ft0V48oMb
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 26, 2019
Port Jeff is a program with a long and storied history of baseball success. Under longtime Head Coach Al Desiderio, who was the father of the program, they won 10 league titles in his 35 seasons and amassed 443 wins.
“Desi”, as he’s commonly referred to, was in the house today to watch Port Jeff pull of a 14-5 upset over Comsewogue. That made this victory impressive is that Port Jeff is a member of League 8 and came away victorious against a League 4 program; no small task.
“I think our season started off the way I envisioned the season starting off,” said 10th year Head Coach Jesse Rosen. “We have a good group of incoming seniors/returning juniors from last year and I have some really good underclassmen. I’m starting a sophomore behind the plate,I’m starting a freshman at shortstop, around the infield some newcomers to varsity, but some kids that had some success at the JV level–kids that we could’ve brought up last year but I kind of let them develop and have a successful JV experience. We look good,” said Rosen.
Port Jeff is coming off a 5-win season, but if today was any indication, they will have a much more fruitful 2019 year.
They got off to a slow start today, trailing 2-0 after the top of the first inning. Comsewogue scored their runs on a balk and an RBI ground out to second base. They extended their lead to 3-0 on an RBI single by Nick Lopez (Adelphi-commit) and 4-0 later in the inning.
Trailing 4-0 would usually be a demoralizing feeling for a young team, but the Royals did not waiver in their confidence.
They chipped away with two runs in the third inning on an RBI ground out by Peyton Ginas and an RBI single by Jordan Suarez. In the fourth, they cut it to 4-3 on an RBI single by Gabe Zoda and tied it up on an E6. That was a common theme in this game, as Comsewogue committed some costly defensive miscues that allowed the Royals to not only get back in the game, but run away with it.
The big blow came on a two-out two-run double by Suarez to give them a 6-4 lead.
Comsewogue got within one in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Matt Sainsbury, but that was as close as they got.
In the fifth and sixth innings, Port Jeff scored eight runs on six hits and six walks.
Ginas went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI, Anthony D’Elia went 2-for-5 with four RBI and Suarez went 2-for-4 with three RBI. Billy Alter recorded the win with four innings, no ER and one hit.
Bert Suarez
Thanks for covering this team. This is the best Royals team in 5 years. Great group, solid Senior and Junior leadership, and group hungry young guys.