Mason Kelly ripped the go-ahead 2-R single in the fourth inning to give Shoreham-Wading River the lead for good. He is our @BsbLifestyle101 Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/XSRPFRTmQ2
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 10, 2019
With the bases loaded, two outs and a tie game in the fourth inning Mason Kelly came through in a big way. The Furman-commit lined a two-run single to center field to give Shoreham-Wading River a lead that they would not relinquish. They came away with a 4-2 victory over new league rival John Glenn.
Early on, pitching was dominant on both sides. A pitching match up juniors; right-hander Cullen SantaMaria for SWR and Matt Polestino, the southpaw for Glenn.
The first order of business for Glenn was getting a hit, after getting no-hit by Aidan Crowley yesterday. Joe Patane got that out of the way with a one-out double in the first. They were unable to move him, and were set aside in the first.
The Wildcats wasted no time getting on the board in the first inning after Kelly led off with a double to right field, DJ Brown drew a walk and Peter Minneci laced an RBI single back through the originator to score Kelly.
That was the only blemish for Polestino who settled in quite nicely.
He struck out the next three batters in succession. He displayed an impressive repertoire of pitches; a 79-81 MPH heater with armside tail, a 12-6 hook at 67 MPH and an advanced change up with the same arm speed.
In the top of the second, SantaMaria worked around walks to Nick DiDiego and Aidan Desmond, but he struck out Lucas DiGiovanni to end it.
DiDiego stepped to the plate in the fourth with one out and absolutely crushed one to right center to tie the game up at 1-1. Glenn actually threatened to add more, Nick Aufiero singled and Desmond walked but SantaMaria’s sixth strikeout ended the jam.
The action really begun in the bottom of the fourth when Nick Bettenhauser led off the inning with a double. Jared Sciarrino attempted to bunt him to third but Polestino made a very athletic play to nail the lead runner at third. Everett Wehr lined a single and a wild pitch moved the runners to scoring position. As a perfect example of how baseball is a game of inches a 3-2 pitch was called a ball that was just below the knees. Strike three ends the inning but it was called ball four to load the bases for Kelly who promptly delivered the game-breaking single to center. DJ Brown followed with an RBI single of his own to make it 4-2.
Glenn got one of those back in the top half of the fifth inning on an RBI double to deep center by Polestino to score Patane.
Blake Osness came on in relief and put out the fire with a strikeout looking. He also cruised through the sixth with a 1-2-3 inning but the seventh inning brought some traffic on the bases.
Dillon Maier led off the inning with a rocket single and moved to second on Patane’s single. A flyout to center was the first out, but a walk to Rocco Fratarcangeli loaded the bases with one out which called for a powwow on the mound.
Osness was able to bear down and strike out the next two batters to end the game and continue Shoreham’s undefeated start to the season at 4-0.
