For the past two seasons, Center Moriches has dispelled the theory that baseball is a game of failure.
After yesterday’s 11-1 victory in the New York State Class B State Championship against Schuyersvile, the Red Devils captured their second straight title to cement themselves into the history books.
They are the first team to finish a season undefeated (26-0) since Bayport-Blue Point in 2013–who also was able to pull off the distinction of back-to-back State Championships the next season.
They have also not lost a game since April 18, 2018. Any way you slice it, this is truly a special group.
In this game, they jumped out ahead immediately with a three-run shot by catcher Alec Maag. The Axcess League MVP has been the straw that stirs the drink all season and has been playing on another level all season.
That was all the offensive production they would need, but they continued to pour on runs with a three-spot in the third inning as well thanks to an RBI double by Brad Sakellarides, a sac fly by Rob Copozzi and an RBI hit by Leyton Pulsipher.
Adelphi-commit Matt Alifano was his usual dominant self, keeping the Schuylerville bats off the board until the third inning when the score was 7-1.
They broke the game open in the sixth inning on RBI hits by Rob Copozzi and Andres Auffant.
Nathan Sigerson and Jordan Falco slammed the door shut to finish off the perfect season.
Alec Maag hit a 3-R home run in the first inning to get Center Moriches rolling. They win 11-1 to win the State Championship @BsbLifestyle101 pic.twitter.com/y6HzXcNv0g
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 15, 2019
The 15 seniors on this team were a huge part of their success and there’s no doubt that the program will miss the impact of players like Alec Maag (Eastern Connecticut), David Falco (Maryland), Andres Auffant (Franklin Pierce), Matt Alifano (Adelphi), Brad Sakellarides (Herkimer) among others.
For me, I knew this group was special when we covered their game at Babylon back on April 16. This was supposed to be a competitive game against a league rival. Six batters into the game it was 6-0 after a grand slam by Rob Copozzi. The team destroyed all of its competition this season and was not shocked by any of it.
A common debate when a team in a small-school classification has an outstanding is whether they could compete with the big school teams. In this case, it’s an emphatic yes. We will have a more thorough article on it this week.
