With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning with the game tied at six, Long Island Junior Ducks pitcher Wilmer Cuevas found himself in a bases loaded jam with Team Steel’s three-hitter Sean Hamilton at the plate. After a first pitch ball, Cuevas came inside with a fastball which Hamilton grounded to third baseman Jake Zoufaly. Zoufaly stepped on the bag for the final out of the game.
The game ended in a 6-6 tie Tuesday evening at Newfield High School. A rather fitting for two teams that came into the game at .500. Cuevas came in relief and threw three innings of scoreless baseball which saved the tie for his team.
Andrew Barbieri took the hill for Team Steel to start the game. Barbieri allowed only one hit through four innings and Team Steel’s offense came out hot.
In the bottom of the first inning, leadoff man Joe Hackal singled to right field off of Duck’s starter Luke Filippi. The next two batters Blake Buscemi and Hamilton hit back-to-back singles. With the bases loaded, four-hitter Marte knocked in Hackal with a deep fly ball to center field in which Buscemi advanced to third. Buscemi and Hamilton scored on a throwing error by Duck’s third baseman, Zoufaly, on a Kyle Salvati ground ball.
After Team Steel took a 3-0 lead early, no runs were scored until the fifth. In the top of the fifth, Jack Acker led off the inning for the Junior Ducks with a single to Left Field. The next batter, Filippi, hit a soft ground ball to the mound which hit off Barbieri’s glove and trickled past him to allow Filippi to reach safely and Acker advanced to second. Cleanup hitter Michael Ragona knocked in Acker with a line-drive single to Center, Filippi advanced to second. Fillippi and Ragone would both come around to score in the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, RHP Logan Prisco came in relief for the Junior Ducks and his control issues allowed Team Steel to regain the lead. Blake Buscemi began the inning with a leadoff single and was thrown out on a fielder’s choice at second base, Sean Hamilton reached first on the play. Prisco then walked Marte and Salveti on four pitches respectively. Hamilton later scored on a Ryan Smith single. Marte and Salveti both scored because of two bases loaded walks issued by Prisco.
In the top of the sixth the Junior Ducks came right back to tie the game up yet again. After they worked the bases loaded, Kevin Schnupp scored the first run of the inning on an RBI single by Acker. After the single, Team Steel pulled Barbieri and Hackal came into try to limit the damage. The first batter Hackal faced was Filippi who roped a line drive single into right field to score Maaz Igbal and Evan Rodriguez. Hackal escaped the inning after he forced Ragona to ground out.
With the game deadlocked at six, Cuevas came into pitch for the Junior Ducks in the bottom of the sixth. Team Steel would threaten to score in the inning as Sean Hamilton singled then stole both second and third base. With Hamilton on third, Cuevas escaped the jam on a 1-2 fastball which forced Marte to fly out.
After the seventh went smoothly for both pitchers, the eighth was quite the opposite. In the top half of the inning Igbal reached base on an infield single and advanced to second after Rodriguez was hit by a pitch. With two outs and Igbal on second, Acker lined a single to Center Field, Igbal was waved around third and headed for home where he was thrown at the plate for the third out.
Cuevas then closed out the tie in the bottom half of the inning after the Hamilton ground out to third base.
After the Junior Ducks came from behind twice to tie the game, Cuevas noted their simple, yet strong team mentality.
Although the game ended in a 6-6 tie, Wilmer Cuevas is your Axcess Baseball player of the game after forcing a ground out in the bottom of the 8th with the winning run on third. pic.twitter.com/AEj9yixaYU
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 26, 2019
“Just come back,” he said “never give up.”
