Coltrane Calloway fires a 4-hit shutout and Bay Shore advances to the Suffolk Conference II Finals with a 1-0 win over Connetquot ! pic.twitter.com/FryTZ6oBMO
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 16, 2021
When Mike Herbst announced that this would be his last season at the helm for Bay Shore, I had a feeling they would make it a special year.
The Marauders seem determined to fight to the bitter end – as they defeated Connetquot, 1-0, to advance to the Suffolk County Conference II Finals against Huntington on Friday. Ace Coltrane Calloway was lights-out, firing a 4-hit shutout against a tough Thunderbirds lineup.
The pitching match up lived up to the hype. Connetquot sent ace LHP Sean Mileti to the hill against Calloway. The lone run that scored in the game came in the first inning on a wild pitch that scored Jason Ambos.
Mileti settled in from that point on – only running into trouble a couple times. In the second inning he allowed a single to Brandon Soumakis and walked Kevin Minaya but struck out Ty Panariello to end the inning. In the third inning, an E4 allowed Jason Ambos to reach safely and he hit Calloway with a breaking ball to bring up the middle of the order. He got Darnell Guerrero to fly out to left, Matt Rouleau to ground into a force and Chris Rouleau to ground out to shortstop.
Meanwhile, Calloway was cruising. He allowed a first inning single to Ryan Appell and a second inning single to Anthony Scarabino but didn’t allow either runner to reach scoring position.
He was particularly dominant in the middle innings when he went 9 up, 9 down to give his offense to get back to work. Credit to Mileti, though, who was able to continue to keep his offense in the game.
Things got dicey in the sixth. Mike DiFilippo started the inning off with a well-struck triple to right center field to fire up his crowd and dugout. Calloway kept his composure and got the dangerous James Goff to pop out to first and then Colin Biesel ripped out to Rouleau at third who not only caught the ball but made an amazing play to dive at the base to beat DiFilippo for an inning-ending double play. It was the type of big-time, momentum-killing play that they needed.
Mileti struck out the side in the sixth inning to give the T-Birds one more chance for a comeback.
Anthony Scarabino led off the inning with a single to left, and then he was pinch-ran for. Calloway struck out Ryan Kiendle for the first out. The next batter, Anthony Scarabino ripped one up the middle that for sure looked like a hit, but second baseman Christian Pellman made an outstanding diving play to get the force at second. The next batter hit one to right center field that Jason Ambos was able to track down for the final out of the ballgame.
Following the game, Calloway was fired up. In regards to it being Herbst’s final season he said, “it puts a fire under our ass, we really want to show coach we could win a county championship and get the job done!”
They will face a talented Huntington team on Friday who just defeated Northport, 13-6. Bay Shore’s pitching depth works in their favor as they still have Chris Rouleau available – who beat Plainedge in the Boys of Summer Championship last summer. Huntington is deep as well, they threw ace Palmer O’Beirne today but still have Chris Segreti and Kyle Colleluori available.
