Miller Place ended 2018 with a sour-taste in their mouth and have high hopes for this season. They opened up 2019 on a great note with a 4-0 shutout over Westhampton Beach. Gavin McAlonie fired four shutout innings for the win.
“He can do it all,” said Head Coach Ricky Caputo. “He’s an outstanding pitcher as you saw today–At the plate, when he gets two strikes I almost feel like he’s getting better. He’s going to play third base, he’ll play a little short when Kevin Bowrosen gets on the mound. If it wasn’t for him and his talent and his versatility, we’d be a whole different ballclub,” he added.
They got on the board in the third inning on an RBI ground out by McAlonie to score Jordan Syperski. They added two more on RBI singles by Kevin Bowrosen and Nolan White. That was more than enough with their pitching.
McAlonie got into trouble in the fourth inning when he allowed two singles and a walk but escaped the jam with a strikeout and a fly out to center field.
The Panthers added their fourth run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Thomas Nealis.
“There was no offensive explosion, but we did the fundamentals right. When we had a guy on third and nobody out, we got the run in. When there was a runner on second, we took third and a cheap little infield hit and got the run across. A few things went out way but by no means was this an offensive explosion, but we did enough to get a win.”
They will be back in action tomorrow against Kings Park. They are a popular pick to win their league this season, with their sights set on a deep postseason run.
“We’re going to stay humble, but at the same time we want to set the bar high. Last year, Shoreham got the best of us with those two close games, but this year we prepared a lot preseason so we can play some small ball so that we can make sure that in those 2-1 games, we’re the ones with two and not the one.
