It hasn’t been a great season for Eastport-South Manor, coming off an appearance in the Suffolk County AA Finals last May.
You would never know by their performance today, as freshman Jake Deslauriers pitched mature beyond his years. The young RHP was efficient and dominant in a 4-0 shutout over a solid Kings Park team. He fired a three-hit shutout, not allowing a runner past second base in the game.
“I really thought I would do well today,” he said. “That’s what I was planning to do. I tried to get my team a win–we’ve been struggling, but I had to go out and do something. They have a tough lineup but I had to find a way to work through it,” he added.
His offense go him a run to work with early. After the first two batters were retired by Chris Leavey, Connor Trace singled to bring up cleanup hitter, Bubba Capazzola. The powerful slugger ripped an RBI double to score him to get the Sharks on the board.
Leavey settled in after that, he put up zeros in the second through sixth innings to give his team a chance to come back, but the freshman did not blink.
The Kingsmen had an opportunity to score in the sixth inning when New Haven-commit Andrew Bianco ripped a leadoff double to left-center field to bring up the middle of the order. Deslauriers struck out the ensuing three batters to end the threat.
The Sharks added an insurance run in the seventh inning when Ben Robles hit a one-out double and came around to score on a single by Matt Calabrese.
He went back out in the seventh inning and worked around a hit by pitch to retire the next three batters and seal the win.
It was only their second win of the season, but it offers a glimpse into the future for a team with a young core.
For Kings Park, they are still squarely in the mix for the postseason, but they will need to bounce back next week in a big match up against East Islip, who is ahead of them in the League 5 standings.
