Final: Bay Shore 3, CHSAA East 0
WP: Chris Rouleau (CG, 4 hit, 1 BB, 10 K)The Marauders will advance to the finals tomorrow at PAL Complex 9 am pic.twitter.com/e7pbaX8tmn
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 10, 2020
Who needs a regular season anyway?
Bay Shore, who went 0-8 during the regular season of the Suffolk Varsity division in the LI Boys of Summer, defeated Newfield and CHSAA East to advance to tomorrow’s finals against HDMH (Connetquot).
Prior to the game, Coach Mike Herbst mentioned that they had a rough regular season, struggling to get their full roster to the games. I responded that he always finds a way to stay in the games regardless of the circumstances. They wound up doing more than simply staying in the game.
The Marauders, comprised of Bay Shore’s varsity team – minus two of their top hitters (Coltrane Calloway and Ryan Brewer) were able to defeat Newfield 4-0 to advance to the semifinals. On paper, they shouldn’t have been able to compete with CHSAA, who entered the game with a record of 6-3 and were the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. Their team is comprised of the top players in the Catholic League from St. Anthony’s, St. John the Baptist and Holy Trinity.
Herbst has always found a way to succeed regardless of the obstacles his roster faces. On this day, he was able to save hard-throwing 6’6 Chris Rouleau for this game. The rising senior was going to play a big role in Bay Shore’s success this season. He proved that today in a wildly impressive outing. The big righty fired a complete game shutout, striking out 10 batters, walking one and hitting two. He stranded runners in scoring position in both the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings. Those represented CHSAA East’s best opportunities to score but he proved his mettle on both occasions.
CHSAA East sent Liam Adipietro (St. Anthony’s) to the hill. The Shelter Island native worked around a one-out error in the first inning to throw up a zero. He struck out the side in the second and it appeared we were headed for a pitcher’s duel that would maybe last deep into the game.
The Marauders had other plans though, as they broke through in the third.
Matt Brewer led off the inning with a single to right field. The next two batters were retired but Ty Panariello stroked an RBI double to left field to score Brewer. Panariello was going to be one of their top arms this season after he went 3-1 with a 2.77 ERA as an eighth grader. After a walk to Chris Rouleau, the catcher on CHSAA East attempted to pick off Panariello at third base but the throw went down the left field line allowing both him and Rouleau to score to make it 3-0.
Rouleau was dominant, he worked around a HBP of Noah Frasca to throw another scoreless frame.
Timmy Mott came on in relief in the fourth inning and he was very efficient in relief which is just what they needed to keep their offense in the game. Unfortunately, they just weren’t able to break through with a big RBI hit.
CHSAA East got a leadoff base runner on a HBP and a single by Nick Russo to get runners into scoring position for the meat of their lineup. Marist-commit Marco Ali popped out to second base and Timmy Mott grounded out to SS to end the fourth.
Mott struck out the side in the fifth inning.
Another golden opportunity presented itself in the fifth inning. After a strikeout to lead off the inning, Steven Collica singled to left center field and stole second base. Peter Welling drew a walk to add to the drama but Rouleau showed his toughness by striking out the next two batters to end the inning.
Mott worked around a leadoff single in the sixth and wound up striking out the next three batters. Things got a little chippy between the two teams, which was nice to see the intensity in this playoff game. Rouleau would not allow CHSAA East any type of momentum in the final two innings. He went 1-2-3 in the sixth and worked around a leadoff single in the seventh to Nick Russo to strike out the final batter for his 10th of the day.
Despite going winless in the regular season, Bay Shore will advance to the finals tomorrow at 9am at PAL Complex where they will take on Connetquot. These teams are familiar with each other after playing twice in the 2018 postseason.
