Going into the season, Commack knew they were capable of winning a championship. Although it was only a six-game sample size, they proved that during the Town of Brookhaven Varsity Wood Bat Tournament. The Cougars went 6-0 – including a 2-0 victory in the championship against Lindenhurst.
Oneonta-commit Drew Vincent was outstanding. The senior fired a complete game shutout with 10 strikeouts, allowing just two singles in a masterpiece of an outing. It was his second win of the tournament, he also won on Wednesday night.
Although he was throwing goose eggs inning-after-inning, his counterpart Brandon Arcone of Lindenhurst was equally masterful for much of the game. Commack was scoreless entering the bottom of the fifth inning but Vinny Pagano led off with a walk. Jack Cascone followed with a single to center and Gregory Carullo walked to load the bases with no out. Dean Chidester stepped to the plate.
Commack breaks through on a two-run double by Dean Chidester with the bases loaded in the fifth inning pic.twitter.com/j8OeCc7hOo
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 13, 2020
“I knew I had to do something for the team,” said Chidester. “Drew was out there pitching his heart out for the team – I knew we just had to get one run,” he added.
Chidester’s double down the left field line got Commack on the board and sent their fans into a frenzy. With the way Drew Vincent was throwing, it certainly appeared to be enough. While Commack did not add any more insurance runs, they wouldn’t need it. Vincent set down the side in order in the sixth and worked around a two-out base runner in the seventh to slam the door.
Vincent said that he felt the “team continued to get better with each victory” and that it was nice to end his high school career with a complete game shutout.
In the previous game, UCONN-commit Craig Pihlkar struck out 11 over 6.2 shutout innings against Northport. Reliever Jack Cascone struck out the final batter with the bases loaded and two outs to send his team to the championship. It was a wildly impressive showing for Commack who dominated all weekend.
Lindenhurst had a nice run to make it to the championship game. In the semifinals, they held off Pat-Med using two freshman pitchers (Thomas Walker and Thomas Charlwood). Both pitchers showed terrific poise in big spots. The offense was led by Dariel Nunez and Don Whalen – who each had RBI hits to tie the game and then they scored the go-ahead run on an error by the pitcher on a two-out bunt.
They were able to keep the Pat-Med offense at bay after the first inning, when Peter Pannullo hit a two-out two-run double.
In the Class A Championship, Hauppauge and Miller Place squared off with Miller Place coming out on top 4-3. It was another great game, as Miller Place overcame an early 2-0 lead. Gavin McAlonie‘s two-run HR tied it up and they also scored their go-ahead run on an error. Kai Loftin started and earned the victory, while Dylan Carleo recorded the save – walking a tight rope in the seventh inning and allowing Hauppauge to put a run on the board on an RBI double to left.
Southampton defeated Pierson, 2-0, to capture the small school championship in a tidy game that lasted just 1 hour, 40 minutes.
Incredible job by the Town of Brookhaven to put this event together featuring 36 Suffolk County schools – including all the top teams in Class AA. We survived a tropical storm on Friday and overcame all odds of pulling off an event of this magnitude during a pandemic. Congratulations to the three champions and I certainly hope this is an event that can happen in the future – minus the pandemic, of course.
