Commack does it!! They are the 2017 Suffolk Class AA Champions !
Commack 8, West Islip 6
WP: Jake Krzemienski pic.twitter.com/00g1i7pt9V— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2017
One week before the season, the Commack baseball team didn’t know who their Head Coach would be. This was a team coming off a 14-win season and a playoff run with arguably the best staff on Long Island.
Three months later they are celebrating their first Suffolk County Class AA championship since 1997 after their 8-6 back-and-forth victory over the reigning Long Island Champion West Islip Lions.
Senior Pete Theodorellis, who tied the game up at 6-6 in the sixth inning with a double off the fence–and fired 8.2 IP yesterday–never wavered in his optimism with this team. Even during that period of confusion in February.
“Coach [Bryan] Bonin came in a week before the season, he knew we had a job to get done to get everyone together on the same page–no cliques, all united–and that’s what happened,” said the Farleigh-Dickinson commit. “He got it done and he helped out out tremendously and that’s one of the reasons why we are here.”
James Cardinale, who got the start and lasted 4.2 IP before being relieved by the eventual winning pitcher Jake Krzemienski, knew he had a tough task today going up against a talented West Islip lineup on their home field.
“They hit everything,” said Cardinale. “I had to really locate everywhere–no matter where I put the ball they can hit it. They’re a great team and a great hitting team,” he added.
For the first two innings, neither team could get on the board. Lions’ RHP Tom Gatto allowed three singles in the first two innings but kept the Cougars off the board until the third inning.
They broke out with four runs, thanks to an RBI ground out by Jake Jacobs and an RBI single by Jake Krszemienski, who stayed red-hot, to give them a 2-0 lead. With two outs, a routine ground ball to shortstop went through the legs of the infielder to score their third run and Johnny Pohlman hit a missile down the right field line to score the fourth run, but right fielder Joe Valentino fired a seed to third base on a fly to nail the runner attempting to advance.
The Lions answered right back with two runs of their own on an RBI single by Greg Tsouprakos and an RBI ground out by Anthony Ippolito. Just like that, they were back in the game.
In the top of the fifth, sophomore Tim McHugh (TCU-commit) ripped a line drive solo home run over the left-center field fence to extend the lead to 5-2.
West Islip bats went to work, though, and batted around in the fifth. Four consecutive hits, including a two-run single by Tsouprakos cut the lead to 5-4. Two batters later, Valentino, hit a sac fly to tie the game at 5-5 and Tom Parson drove a single to right to score Tsouprakos and give the Lions a 6-5 lead.
Just went it appeared the series might be headed to a decisive Game 3, the Cougars responded with three runs in the sixth on Theodorellis’ RBI double off the fence and Cardinale’s two-run go-ahead single to right to give the Cougars the 8-6, which proved to be the game-winner.
“I really wanted to make sure I gave back to my team and that’s what I did,” said Cardinale. “I was really happy, I stayed back on a curve,” he added.
After Krzemienski came in during the fifth inning, he really diffused the Lions’ momentum. He fanned the final batter in the inning and then went 1-2-3 in the final two innings. It was an impressive display of toughness to negate the pressure and rise above in the big moment. He fanned the final batter to put an exclamation point on the victory and send the Cougars into a frenzy as they stormed the field and dogpiled on the mound.
Cardinale stated that the team was not shy in making their goals known in the offseason.
“We were not here to win the league, we’re trying to win a county championship and even more. We knew we had something good going,” he added.
The Cougars (22-3) will now advance to the Class AA Long Island Championship where they will face Massapequa (20-6) for the right to head to the New York State tournament. The pitching match up will most likely be Theodorellis against Daniel Gdanski. That game will take place on Saturday night at Gregg Alfano Field in Patchogue at 7pm.
