Here it is once again! The walk-off by JUNIOR* Garrett Achiele!! Let’s retweet the heck outta this and get it on @SportsCenter #SCTop10!! The Mariners are @SkylineConfD3 Champions!! @USMMA_Baseball #SkylineBase #d3baseball @axcessbaseball @kschnatz @USMMA_Alumni @D3FBHuddle pic.twitter.com/uhOAiBGbrX
— USMMA Athletics (@USMMA_Athletics) May 9, 2021
Touch ’em all, Garrett!
What a thrilling finish to the 2021 Skyline Conference Championship – Garrett Aichele crushed a solo shot to right center with two outs in the 10th inning to propel No. 1 USMMA to their first Skyline Conference Championship in program history.
The Mariners (16-3) will now a earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Regionals and will find out where they will be heading this week.
Andrew Hunt, a remarkably consistent reliever for USMMA earned the win in relief after he threw two shutout innings. He did run into some trouble in the 9th as Old Westbury had loaded the bases after walking Sean Paprocki, Jacob Taormina and Mike Manetta but he fanned John Dell’Olio to end the jam.
The Mariners went down 1-2-3 in the home half of the 9th to send the game to extras.
Hunt went back out for the 10th and worked around a 1-out single by Shaun Kaminski to throw a scoreless inning and send his offense back into the dugout.
Garrett Aichele on his walk-off home run to send USMMA into the NCAA Regionals @USMMA_Baseball pic.twitter.com/rQvg84fyag
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 9, 2021
Joe Sarni took the mound for his fourth inning of relief and nearly escaped unscathed. He retired Joey Zanetti and Brayden O’Connell to start the inning before Garrett Aichele stepped up and became the hero.
Head Coach Mike Notebaert stated that this was a huge win for the program especially since this group of seniors came so close to winning it all in 2018 against St. Joseph’s in an 11-inning loss at Farmingdale.
Justin Aviles got the start for Old Westbury and he was very effective – pitching 6.0 IP, allowing two ER on four hits, walking four and striking out one. You may recognize his named from three years ago when he captured the League I MVP for Brentwood.
Ben Kane started for USMMA. He went 5.0 IP, allowing two ER on six hits and four walks with one strikeout. Both team’s relievers did a great job of holding the fort and giving their team’s a chance to win the ballgame.
For Old Westbury, it was a great season. They finished with a record of 13-6, but only one team can advance to the NCAA Regionals unfortunately.
For USMMA, they showed the value of senior leadership on the team. Due to COVID protocols, they did not even begin their season until March 27 and couldn’t gather as a team so it put a premium on players working out on their own and maintaining contact with the captains which they proved is a valuable component of a winning team.
