East Islip breaks through in the seventh inning on a two-run single by Nick Baldino. They lead 4-0 as we head to the bottom of the seventh pic.twitter.com/r19Pgt4kid
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 30, 2019
Matt McHugh was pitching like he had a plane to catch. He needed just 72 pitches to fire a complete game 1-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory over West Babylon.
“I was trying to get guys out as quickly as possible is what I was trying to do,” said McHugh. The problem was his counterpart, St. Joseph’s-commit Tyler Gamba was doing the same.
Inning-after-inning each pitcher was mowing down the opposition. In fact, the teams were able to complete five innings in one hour as each pitcher was throwing strikes and working quickly. The Redmen offense, which had been struggling, broke out in a big way in the top of the seventh inning.
After the first two batters were retired, it appeared they might need extra innings to pull out this victory, but they were able to mount a furious two-out rally beginning with an infield single to shortstop by Brendan Cox.
Gamba’s day was done and he gave way to Jagger Feldman. Consecutive walks loaded the bases for Nick Baldino, the No.9 hitter. He laced one through the right side to score two runs to get the Redmen on the board.
“I was looking for a fastball in a good spot, just tried to put it in ball on the ground hard,” said Baldino. He executed his plan perfectly providing his team with all the offense they needed.
They added two more runs on an error by the pitcher and a steal of home in which the runner on first got into a rundown on purpose.
In the bottom of the 7th, McHugh allowed a one-out walk but coaxed a routine 6-6-3 DP to end the game. He finished with six strikeouts.
The Redmen improve to 8-3 overall and 4-3 in league play. These two teams will be back in action tomorrow at West Babylon.
