by James Ryder
Carson McCafery put up a monster game on the mound (4 innings, 10 Ks) and at the plate (2 runs, 3 RBI). Here he is discussing his focus during the game: pic.twitter.com/w9yiJFvc5T
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 26, 2020
The 13u East Meadow Mustangs hosted Yeti Baseball Wednesday evening at the East Meadow Baseball Complex. From the outset, Yeti Baseball dominated the game. Starting pitcher Carson McCafery contributed both on the mound and at the plate in spectacular fashion. He struck out 10 batters in 4 innings and scored 2 runs along with 3 RBI in an 8-2 victory. McCafery also gave up several walks – 8 to be exact. The Mustangs even loaded the bases against him in three straight innings.
However, McCafery went mostly unscathed in this appearance, allowing only two runs on a double from Nick Longardino in the top of the third inning. Besides that, McCafery struck out two in the first and second inning, and he struck out the side with bases loaded twice in both the third and fourth. While the Mustangs had trouble hitting, Yeti Baseball saw production from all over their lineup. McCafery led off the bottom of the second inning by getting hit by a pitch. He stole second and moved over to third on Jacob Lippie’s ground ball to second, which was dropped by the first baseman for an error. With runner’s now on 1st and 3rd, Lippie took off for second. A throw was made to the second baseman, who then tried to gun down McCafery, who broke for the plate. He stole home easily though to give them a 1-0 lead. Lippie later scored on an RBI ground out from Carter Lam to make it 2-0.
The Mustangs quickly tied up the game at 2-2 on the aforementioned Longardino hit in the third, but the lead was just as quickly regained by Yeti Baseball in the bottom half. They managed to hit four doubles, all of which either landed in deep left field or found the left-center field gap. The first double was a leadoff hit by Nick Fiorentino. McCafery went opposite field for his double to give his team the lead back 3-2. The remaining two doubles, one off the bat of Lippie and the other from Connor Cantania, expanded their lead to 5-2. And they were not done yet. Yeti Baseball continued to score by earning 1 run in the fourth and 2 more in the fifth. The former inning saw Andrew Carbonara draw a leadoff walk and proceed to steal second and third base. A single from Fiorentino brought Carbonara home to make it 6-2. Fiorentino also stole second and third and was once again driven in by McCafery, who hit a sacrifice fly ball to LF, 7-2 Yeti Baseball.
Finally, the latter inning featured an error at shortstop that allowed AJ Sevelon to score Yeti Baseball’s eighth run. Lam replaced McCafery to pitch the final two innings. Lam finished with two strikeouts and forced four ground outs to put away the Mustangs. It was a great group effort from Yeti Baseball, but the story of the night was McCafery’s monster two-way performance. Final: Yeti Baseball 8, East Meadow 2.
