by Chris Sacchi
A beautiful Friday afternoon game between the Westhampton Aviators and the Sag Harbor Whalers came down to a close 5-4 victory for host Westhampton, with an added historic milestone.
Sag Harbor went down quickly with two ground outs to start the game against George Washington right handed starter Harrison Cohen. Whalers three hitter and shortstop Brock Franks then hit the first pitch he saw right back from where he came for a hard hit line drive single up the middle.
Whalers center fielder Andrew Bates then followed with a long shot to straight away center field that was easily extra bases. Frank’s came around third base hard trying to score, but a great throw in from the outfield from Aviators center fielder Dan Franchi cut off Sag Harbor from a first inning run to end the inning.
Dan Franchi then led off the home first inning down 0-2 in the count against Sag Harbor lefty starter Duke Jordan. Franchi, though, seemed destined for a productive day after working the count to draw a leadoff walk.
Franchi then stole second base, reached third on a passed ball, and scored on a Bailey Peterson RBI ground out to shortstop. It was Peterson’s 24th run batted in of the year to build his RBI lead on the Aviators.
Cohen settled in for a 1-2-3 top of the second, and the Aviators came to bat in the bottom half looking to build upon an early 1-0 lead.
Thomas Summers, playing in only his seventh game for the Aviators, started a rally with a one out walk. Dan’s brother David Franchi singled with two outs to allow his brother another chance to hit an inning after scoring.
After fouling two pitches off and taking a pitch outside the zone, Dan Franchi connected with a long drive to left field that exited the ballpark for a home run, already with 3 RBI and two runs scored in the second inning. His Westhampton Aviators lead 4-0 after two.
Cohen enjoyed a 1-2-3 once again in the third, and retired the first two in the top of the fourth to retire 8 in a row. Cohen entered with a 3-0 record and a 1.58 ERA, and looked poised for another dominant start. After missing his prior sophomore season at George Washington recovering from surgery to remove a bone spur in his right throwing elbow, Cohen has more than made up for lost time as a member of the Hamptons League.
His eight retired streak came to an end when Andrew Bates drew a two out walk, the second time Bates had gotten the best of Cohen so far into the game. That walk proved costly, as it allowed Matt Woods, another left hand batter, to come up.
Woods entered play hitting .333 with 33 hits on the year, good for second on the Whalers in average. Woods stayed hot by hitting a line drive over the wall in right field that had very little doubt it was a homer. Entering the bottom of the fourth, Sag Harbor cut the deficit in half, 4-2.
Things were quiet until the top of the sixth, with Cohen still working for Westhampton. Sag Harbor used some “small ball” to score Lukas Stalman after a leadoff with a double; Stalman moved to third on a Brock Franks grounder to second and scored on an Andrew Bates ground ball RBI to cut it to 4-3.
Westhampton scored a critical insurance run in the seventh after David Franchi walked and came around to score on a Brian Callahan sacrifice fly to make it 5-3 after seven. Before that, though, Dan Franchi’s single off the left field wall allowed his brother to advance to third, and give himself something for the record books.
The @WHAviators take it 5-4 over the @SagHbrWhalers, and a historic day for Dan Franchi; his 76 hits spread across this season and the 2016 summer are the most ever for a member of the Aviators. Franchi had three hits today, along with a three run homer, two stelas, and two runs. pic.twitter.com/U97ZdZYO3o
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 6, 2019
Dan Franchi’s third hit was number 76 in his Hamptons League career, making him the all time leader for the Westhampton Aviators.
“Today I just kept it simple at the plate and just tried to find something to hit. Hit ‘em pretty well today,” Franchi said with a smile postgame after a 3-3 day with a homerun, two stolen bases, two runs score and three RBI. “Set the record in front of my family and friends at home, just a great accomplishment. Happy to do it here.”
Franchi and his brother Dave are from local Center Moriches, New York, and Franchi appreciates and cherishes the chance to play alongside his younger brother.
“I played only one other year of baseball with my brother, so I’m happy to get one more last year with him.”
Franchi spent his 2016 summer as a member of the Aviators, and after two summers elsewhere, he returned to the east end of Long Island entering his fifth and final season of baseball, meaning this is his last season of summer ball as a college player.
“This is going into my fifth season of college baseball… coming back, having a lot more fun, being a lot more loose, a lot more fun this year.”
Franchi was able to keep the baseball, and his postgame interview can be found on the AxcessBaseball twitter, as well as additional comments on the Westhampton Aviators twitter page.
After the achievement, though, the game continued, and it came down to the wire. Cohen’s night was done after 7 innings pitched, three earned runs, four hits, and seven strikeouts. He was replaced by hard throwing right hander Kyle Johnson, who got the first two outs with ease but loaded the bases after a hit by pitch, walk, and single.
Lefty Tucker Wittman came in to replace Johnson, and after walking Ramon Jimenez to score a run, Wittman escaped the eighth with his team now leading by a slim 5-4 score.
Westhampton looked ready to add some insurance in the bottom of the eighth with runners at the corners and no outs, but some truly unsightly baseball (pop out and two base running outs trying to steal) kept the game at a one run margin, and the Sag Harbor dugout was loud with emotion with a chance to extend the game.
Despite the intensity of the Whalers team, Aviators closer Logan Verrino had other ideas, nailing down the save with a 1-2-3 ninth, the last out falling in Dan Franchi’s glove out in center field.
“I felt great… we’ve developed some sort of a rivalry with Sag Harbor, so it felt good to come out of the pen and know that my defense would play behind me,” Verrino said postgame, via the Westhampton Aviators Twitter.
As seen of the AxcessBaseball twitter, there were some words exchanged after the final out, but nothing beyond that. It’ll be fun to see these two teams continue to battle all summer and see where the rivalry goes from here. These two teams next matchup in less than a week, on Thursday, July 11th at 5:00 in Westhampton.
