Final: Steel 12, Owls 9. pic.twitter.com/N432pbzpm1
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2019
On a muggy, foggy night at Baseball Heaven, Team Steel Gold came away with their first victory of the season, defeating the Islip Owls by a score of 12-9.
Team Steel wasted no time getting a lead, scoring four runs in the first. With one out, Brayden Alemaghides worked a walk and stole second. Alex Casey followed up with a double, giving Steel their first lead. Casey then advanced to third and then scored on a pair of passed balls. With two guys out, Nikolas Infante reached on an error. James Minutillo made the Owls pay, blasting a home run to left field, giving his team a four run cushion in the first.
The Owls clawed away at the deficit that they faced, scoring a run of their own in the bottom half of the frame. Louis Poulos worked a walk, then stole second and third. The following batter, Matthew Waters, also worked a walk. Waters then got caught too far off of first base, getting caught in a rundown. While the defense attempted to erase Waters from the base paths, Poulos made his way home, scoring the first run of the game for the Owls.
While Steel was unable to muster up much offense in the second inning, the Owls went to work. Jordan Drago reached on a dropped third strike. He then stole second, and later came around to score on a single from Dylan Casani. The following two batters were retired, but a double brought Casani in, and brought the Owls to within a run. A walk put two runners on for Alex Rahner, who singled, and advanced to second on the throw. With the score now tied 4-4, Gregory McSweeney popped up to the second baseman for what should have been the final out of the inning. However, the play wasn’t made, and two runs scored, giving the Owls a 6-4 lead after two full innings.
Steel took the lead right back, scoring three runs of their own in the top of the third, making it a 7-6 game. Once again, the Owls answered back, scoring two runs of their own. Matthew Pasfield delivered the big blow with a two run double to left field. The Owls once again were ahead, now 8-7 after three innings of play.
Consistent with the way the rest of the game was going, there was another lead change in the fourth inning. Steel came through with five runs to take the lead, displaying patience at the plate, as they were willing to take walks to put runners on. As the top half of the inning came to an end, it was apparent that this would be the final inning due to the time limit.
The Owls would not go down without a fight, and their first three batters reached base in their half of the inning. With the game potentially on the line, Team Steel made the call to the bullpen, bringing in Alex Casey to try to escape a bases loaded jam with no outs. After inducing a weak infield popup, Casey got the following batter to fly out to center field, allowing an inherited runner to score.
“After that, then I felt good, I knew we could make plays,” Casey said of the fly out to center. However, he didn’t need his fielders for another play after that, as he got the next batter to whiff at a curveball for the final out of the game.
The 12-9 victory was the first of the season for Team Steel Gold, improving to 1-4 on the season. It was the fourth loss of the season for the Islip Owls, who remain searching for their first win of the season.
