Final: Smithtown West 2, Centereach 0
WP: Brian Delaney
S: Christian AmorusoAmoruso is the @BsbLifestyle101 Player of the Game he also had an RBI hit pic.twitter.com/fspanKo311
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 22, 2019
Centereach was unable to push a run across against Brian Delaney in the third, fourth or fifth innings when they had two runners on base each time. Smithtown West ace was able to escape unscathed each time, even with constant rain coming down at Centereach HS for a 2-0 win by the Bulls.
“I think we played well today even though the conditions were not ideal,” said Delaney, who recorded the win with six shutout innings. “We were able to fight through that and we were successful today,” he added.
He was opposed by Centereach ace Eddie Bassett who had some good fortunes of his own during the early innings.
He worked around an error and a single by Vinny Iannuzzi in the first inning thanks to a terrific DP turned by Ryan Decoursey on a soft liner that appeared destined for a bloop single. Decoursey was able to make the great grab and turn it into a double play.
Delaney allowed two singles in the first inning–one to Liam Webber and another to Nick Horner, but got a double play and Iannuzzi threw out an attempted base stealer to end the inning.
In the second inning, Jason Weinhaus hit a single but was caught stealing which allowed Bassett to work out of the jam.
In the top of the third, Bassett’s luck turned on him. He allowed a hit by pitch to Dom Crema to start the inning and walked Ryan Setter. Amoruso flew out to center for the first out. A hard ground ball off the bat of Iannuzzi hit Crema which goes down as a single but was the second out of the inning. A walk to Jimmy Klee and Erick Reuter brought in the game’s first run, but a ground out ended the inning.
The Cougars had a golden opportunity in the third inning when Bassett and Jake Parisi both singled but a failed bunt attempt turned into a strikeout, followed by another strikeout and an infield pop out resulted in a scoreless inning.
Smithtown West added a run in the fourth inning with a two-out rally. The first two batters were retired by Crema and Setter both drew walks to bring up Amoruso who lined a singled to left on a play that looked like they had a chance to nail the runner at the plate. In any event, the insurance run was big for Delaney.
In the home half of the fourth, Decoursey led off with a walk, as did Ryan Mahnke. A floyout to right put runners on the corners with one out. A safety squeeze down the third base line was unsuccessful as Decoursey was tagged out at the plate for the second out of the inning. Bassett struck out to end the threat.
Once again, Centereach had the lead off man on in the fifth inning on a single by Jake Parisi. They sacrificed him to second base and Liam Webber walked to get the tying run on base but Delaney was able to bear down and retired Horner and Decoursey to end the threat.
They also got the lead off man on in the sixth inning on a walk to Mahnke, but the next three batters struck out in succession to end the sixth.
Mark Schnitzer fired 2.1 shutout innings in relief, but the offense was unable to get him the W.
Amoruso came in for the save and struck out the first two batters and induced a soft come backer to end the inning.
With the victory, they improve to 5-5 overall and Centereach drops to 3-6. These two teams will be back in action on Wednesday at Smithtown West.
