by Chris Sacchi
The Southampton Breakers had just about done all they could to secure a victory in game one of a double header against the Long Island Road Warriors at Baseball Heaven on Thursday.
Entering the bottom of the sixth inning, the Breakers led 12-1. Since double header games are seven innings each in the Hamptons League, the mercy rule of 10 runs comes into effect after 5 innings. So, Southampton was only three outs away from getting a mercy rule victory over the Road Warriors.
The Breakers mounted that 11 run lead heading into the bottom of the sixth thanks to a powerful offensive showing. They struck for three runs in the top of the third from an RBI double off the bat of Johnny Hipsman, scoring Chris Wasson and Tony Zambito, and Hipsman later come around to score on a wild pitch.
The very next inning, the final four hitters of the order (Eric Marasheski, Mike Ferrara, Kyle Lagrutta, and Anthony Raucci) replicated their teammates from the top of the order and put together three runs.
Leading 6-1 heading into the top of the sixth, the Breakers put the game more out of reach with a six run inning, capped by home runs from Ferrara and Thompson. With that 12-1 lead, all the Breakers needed was three outs and the game was over.
The Road Warriors had other plans.
David Soto and Eric Roubal, two of the leading hitters for Long Island, started the inning with singles, and a Miles Kelly walk loaded the bases with no outs. All three scored after a single from pinch hitter Jake Ford and a sacrifice fly from Jake McCarthy. Ford then came around to score after a Jack Ryan base hit to make it a 12-5 score, escaping the mercy run and extending the game.
After a one-two-three top seventh, things were still looking favorable for the Breakers. Once again, though, David Soto led off with a single, starting a rally that lasted until the game was over.
Miles Kelly hit a two-RBI double to start the scoring. An error kept the rally going, and the Road Warriors scored four runs without making any outs for a 12-9 game.
The first out was a sacrifice fly off the bat of pinch hitter Lukas Ollson, and Soto came back up to knock in an RBI to make it just a one run game.
Kelly came back up with another RBI chance, this time to win it. Runners were on second and third with two outs. On a 2-1 count, Kelly ripped a single into right field that scored both runners, completing a magical, storybook comeback.
“Going into that at-bat, I was looking to hit something hard,” Kelly said postgame. “I was sitting fastball every pitch, because in warmups his curveball wasn’t looking too great… it squeaked through for a hit.” Three outs away from a mercy rule loss, the Road Warriors scored 11 unanswered runs to rip game one of the double header away from Southampton.
Entering the bottom of the sixth, the Long Island Road Warriors trailed 12-1, facing a mercy rule loss in a seven inning game. After five runs in the sixth to make it 12-5, LI scored eight runs to come all the way back and win 13-12. Miles Kelly’s walkoff earns him his first belt pic.twitter.com/JLdZbIWqZA
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 20, 2019
Game 2
After the emotions settled down from a wild game one, game two was a back and forth contest. Southampton came out with a bit more energy after a truly embarrassing loss.
Johnny Hipsman took out his team’s frustration early on, clearing the right field fence with a two run homer just two batters into the game.
Long Island got a run back in the top of the second from an RBI single off the bat of Joey Grillo, scored John Marti, who scored three runs in this game.
Marti scores his second run on an RBI grounder from Ollson in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. The score became 4-2 thanks to an RBI single from Marti the next inning.
Not wanting to give away another lead, Mike Ferrara sent a grand slam over the wall in the bottom of the fifth gave his Breakers a 6-4 lead.
Jake Guercio’s RBI single to score Grillo allowed the Road Warriors to claw back 6-5 in the top of the sixth, but the Breakers earned a run right back with a Reed Babin homer in the bottom of the sixth to lead 7-5 heading into top seven. As the home team, once again all Southampton needed was three outs to put away a victory.
John Marti was the only one to reach base in the inning against right hander Peyton Maple in that last inning, and with two outs Lukas Ollson was the last chance to extend this game for Long Island.
Down 0-2, Ollson took a biting curveball for a ball to make it a 1-2 count. Down to his last strike, Ollson got the same pitch but in the zone, and crushed over the left field fence for a game-tying home run, and the Baseball Heaven crowd went crazy.
With their backs against the wall again, the Road Warriors once again struck magic and found a chance to win. Despite the game ending in a 7-7 tie after eight innings, their visitors dugout certainly felt more victorious than a Southampton team that had let another win slip away with three outs to go.
“Just wait up there, trying and put the ball in play, and I got something that I liked and just kind of yanked it,” Ollson said postgame.
Thursday’s late game heroics are not an unusual occurrence for this Road Warriors team, who seems to play best when the pressure mounts.
“We wait until the last inning to come and play for some reason,” said Miles Kelly. “We make it a close game every time.”
“We play our best baseball at the end of games,” said Ollson.
