Final: Kings Park 14, Miller Place 11
WP: Declan Cumming
S: Jason Sacks pic.twitter.com/bTNWXUyeXz— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 10, 2021
The beauty of baseball is one day you get shutout and the next you come out and score 14 runs against a perennial playoff team.
Kings Park lost a tough one, 1-0, on Saturday against East Hampton‘s ace Colin Ruddy. Just two days later, they bounced right back and put up four runs in the first inning and won a thrilling game in come-from-behind fashion against Miller Place on the road.
All told, the game took 3 hours from start to finish but you can take out about 15 minutes for a delay when the home plate umpire had to exit due to an injury he sustained. The field ump wound up changing into the protective gear. That was around 7pm and the final two innings resumed without any hiccups as Jason Sacks came on in relief and threw the final 1.1 IP to seal the deal on the first win of the Andrew Abreu era.
The game couldn’t have started any better for Kings Park as they jumped over Miller Place LHP Nick Chiarelli to the tune of four runs. Three-hole hitter John Tardino ripped a two-run double to left center to score EJ Ettinger and Andrew Fazio. After a strikeout, Anthony Altobelli drew a walk to bring up starting pitcher Mason Calafati. He smoked an RBI double to left field to make it 3-0 and that increased to 4-0 when AJ Petraitis grounded out to SS to bring home Altobelli.
With the 4-0 lead, Calafati took the mound but the lead was immediately cut in half when Alex McGuirk ripped a two-run single to right center to score Alex Strickland and Tyler Hodella.
Kings Park went down scoreless in the second and Miller Place tied it up on a two-run double by Kai Loftin, who had a monster day at the plate. He drove in Jason Strickland and Alex Strickland.
In the bottom of the third, it had appeared that Miller Place broke the score open with four runs to make it 8-4. The damage all came after there was two outs and nobody on. Justin Klein got the rally going with a two-out walk, a walk to Alex Strickland and a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position and an E6 on an errant throw allowed both runs to score. After a hit by pitch of Tyler Hodella, Mike Schleider hit a single, as did Bradley Riegel to make it 8-4. That lead would swell to 10-4 in the fourth inning when Loftin struck again with a two-run double to left – this time just narrowly missing a three-run shot. At the moment, it appeared the game was out of reach. As it turned it – it was just getting going.
What a ballgame – trailing 10-4 entering the inning, Kings Park has come storming back and they now trail 10-9 and there’s nobody out pic.twitter.com/D49SK9G1vm
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 10, 2021
Kings Park stormed all the way back in the fifth inning when they sent 15 batters to the plate – the first 8 batters reached safely. The first run scored innocently enough on a bases loaded walk by Calafati. An RBI single and an E5 cut it to 10-7 and the big knock by pinch-hitter Jordan Shapiro through the left side scored two and cut the deficit to just one. Ettinger dropped down a bunt that was thrown into left field to allow the tying run to score. Fazio and Tardino followed with sac flies to give Kings Park the 12-10 lead and that increased to 14-10 when Calafati ripped a two-run single to left.
An important player in this game was RHP Declan Cumming who wound up throwing three innings of relief during the middle innings to stabilize the game. He earned the win.
“As one of the captains I want to lead my team and set an example for the rest of the game and try to keep the team in the game,” he said. During the wild rally he said “the adrenaline was flowing through our veins – that was so much fun. That was some experience,” he added.
Miller Place did get one back in the fifth inning on a comebacker to the mound that scored Schleider. That was as close as they would get.
Kings Park will look to stay on the winning track on Wednesday against Hills West.
