by James Ryder
Playoff Baseball is all of the usual unpredictability with higher tensions and stakes added on top. Few games make this concept clearer than Sunday’s playoff matchup between the Sayville Golden Flashes and the Hauppauge Eagles. A thrilling pitching duel that saw a complete game win and a few other crazy moments led to a Sayville victory, 4-2.
Hofstra-commit Ryan Levenberg took the mound for the Eagles and opened the game with two strikeouts. In the bottom of the first inning, Eric Foster allowed the only two runs of the day for the Eagles. Hauppauge got on base thanks to a walk from Anthony Ferrara followed by a first pitch single by Mike Knopf. The DH Joe Ferreri then hit a single up the middle to score Ferrara. Knopf and Ferreri would then steal second and third base, allowing Chris Leone to hit the sacrifice fly to right-center field.
With the Eagles getting up early, the score remained at 2-0 for several innings. Both teams combined for seven hits in innings 2, 3, 4, and 5, but struggled to score. Despite the lack of runs, there was no lack of suspense. In the third inning, several Hauppauge students caused enough of a distraction to nearly get removed from the game. Even a Sayville coach was almost thrown out as well. However, it was the events on the field in the top of the fifth inning that featured the most drama in this exciting playoff game.
With Davis on second base and with the shortstop Brock Murtha up to bat, the Golden Flashes were looking to catch up. Davis reached first on an error and then went to third after a bad throw to second on a steal attempt. A couple of big hacks from Murtha resulted in two straight lasers down the left field line just foul. Finally, Murtha popped out to left field. Upon recording the out, Knopf gunned down Davis at home plate. Davis collided with the catcher Leone. Leone, although he made the play, was upset and pushed Davis. This all caused both dugouts to clear and Davis, Murtha, and Leone all being thrown out of the game. Sayville’s bench was the first to clear, which almost caused all of them to also be ejected. In the end, after about 15 minutes of umpire and coach interactions, the game resumed, and Sayville came up scoreless again.
Final Score at Hauppauge High School: Sayville 4, Hauppauge 2. They rallied to keep their season alive thanks to a complete game by Eric Foster and DH Nick Buffardi being responsible for 3 of the 4 runs. Here they are reflecting on the game: pic.twitter.com/RIWCT7JHsZ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 26, 2019
In the top of the 6th, the Golden Flashes finally put it all together and staged the first of two rallies that gave them the lead and the win. Levenberg was pulled from the game in favor of Chris Neglia after allowing the leadoff hitter Alex Millwater to smack a long fly ball to center field for a double. Evan Geffner advanced Millwater to third while grounding out to shortstop and Nick Buffardi acquired his first RBI of the game by also hitting a grounder to SS and reaching first base safely. Having scored their first run of the game, Sayville was able to tie it up after a 2 out walk from Tommy Nielsen and a single by Jake Mangino (Davis’ replacement) to make the score 2-2.
Foster got out of the sixth inning cleanly after allowing two hits and a walk. This allowed his team to make their final rally in the top of the seventh inning. After Quinlan flying out to lead the inning, Sayville loaded up the bases with Buffardi once again coming to the plate with the opportunity to score more runs. Buffardi hit a double that scored two.
Going into the final frame, and the score now 4-2, Hauppauge had to score three to walk-off. Foster, who was nearing his pitch count, willed his team to the win by getting three outs facing four batters. Regardless of the drama that occurred in the middle innings, the most entertaining moments of the game were saved for last. Foster’s complete game and Buffardi’s three RBI’s kept the Golden Flashes alive in this high school playoffs with a final score of 4-2. The two teams will be back in action on Tuesday with the winner advancing to face No. 2 Rocky Point in the Class A Finals.
