Reporter @SachChristopher talks with @RHTomcats outfielder Robert Gallagher about “setting the table” at the top of the order. Gallagher scored both Tomcats runs out of the lead off spot in a 2-0 victory. pic.twitter.com/3iGJpR1dsK
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2019
Last season, the Riverhead Tomcats entered play as the only team in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League without a championship.
Fast forward a year, and they’re looking to be the only team in HCBL history to win back-to-back titles.
“We were the last club to win it,” Tomcats general manger Patti White told the Riverhead Times. “We’re going to be the first club to repeat.”
Entering opening day of its matchup with the Shelter Island Bucks, the Tomcats had returned only three players from last season’s championship team.
Despite the turnover, the newcomers contributed right off the bat in a 2-0 opening day victory over the Bucks at home Veteran Memorial Park.
Robert Gallagher out of University of Massachusetts Lowell led off the bottom half of the first for Riverhead, bunting the first pitch from Shelter Island’s Robbie Price down the third base line for a single.
On the very next pitch, Gallagher raced over to second for a stolen base. Two ground outs in the infield was all that was needed to bring the Tomcats its first run of the season.
“I’m a huge speed guy, I’m not going to be hitting any home runs,” Gallagher said post game. “But I like to get on, set the tone early, steal a base and get RBI’s for my next guys.”
Bryce Willits, a St. Mary’s rising sophomore and Riverhead’s number three hitter, racked up his first RBI with a grounder to second that scored Gallagher.
That first inning run was all the cushion that right-handed starter Brian Hendry needed. Hendry, a rising sophomore at St. John’s, pitched six scoreless innings in his Hamptons League Debut, blowing hitters away with a hard fastball and looping curve.
Hendry’s counterpart, Tulane’s Robbie Price, settled down after the first inning with 5 straight scoreless himself. Price found better command of his pitches after the opening frame, especially a curve ball that he often dropped in for strikes on the first pitch of at-bats to buckle hitters and get ahead 0-1.
Price was cruising along until the 7th, when Gallagher got another opportunity to lead off an inning. Gallagher once again set the table, hitting a ground all past a diving Noah Levin at second base for a single.
The next hitter, East Tennessee State’s Markell Graham, laid down a drag bunt single just like his teammate in the first. Willits then hit into a potential double play ball at short, but the second baseman Levin overthrow first base on the turn, and Gallagher scored all the way from second on the error, increasing the Tomcats lead to 2-0.
“We all know this field is slow on the grass, so we’re going to utilize bunting all year, utilize our speed, and I trust the guys behind me,” Gallagher said of the rally. “We’re going to have a great year.”
Replacing Hendry was Left-hander Matthew Krutsch, who pitched two scoreless in relief for the Tomcats. Krutsch’s path to the HCBL is different than most; he pitched in 10 games for Indian Hills community college as a freshman. He then moved on to Cowley Community College the next year for a 45-18 Tigers team that finished third in the JUCO World Seires. This past season, he pitched in nine games, including three starts, for Wayne State University.
The Bucks worked a rally against Krutsch in the seventh that had all the makings of a comeback. First baseman Eddie Satisky and shortstop John Shields worked back-to-back walks with one out. They lager advanced to third on a wild pitch, but were unable to come around and score.
Gallagher’s U Mass Lowell teammate, Joshua Becker, recorded five saves his freshman season this past year, and notched his first HCBL save with a 1-2-3 top on the ninth.
The Tomcats look to improve upon their 1-0 record tomorrow at 5;00 pm against the Long Island Road Warriors. Meanwhile, the Bucks can get to even 1-1 with a win over the North Fork Ospreys, also at 5:00.
