Game 1
It was another beautiful weekend for baseball, where we saw the South Shore Sharks take on the Midville Dodgers in a doubleheader. Both teams came out determined to make a statement and come home with a win, displaying a high level of energy and focus early on. Out of the gates, the game was an immediate thriller. The Sharks put up 5 quick runs in the first inning, but the Dodgers responded with their own outburst of 5 runs. An inning came and went, and seemingly with the flip of a switch, the Sharks began taking over the game.
And we have our first runs of the game! Jonathon Hayes belts one to left-centerfield and comes all the way around to score with a 3-run HR! pic.twitter.com/JjrwdfuZOY
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 25, 2021
Sharks’ standout Jonathon Hayes had himself a monster day, going 3-3 with a home run, a double, and a walk. As a result of those two extra base hits, Hayes tallied 5 RBI’s and scored two times himself as well. He was mainly responsible for the huge jump in production from the Sharks’ side. Some other top performers for South Shore included Anthony Genna and Peter Palotti. Genna finished the first game going 2-2 with two steals, two RBI’s, and a double. As for Palotti, he went 2-3 with two singles and two RBI’s.
Ryan Solomon was the starting pitcher for the Sharks. Although he looked to be going strong to begin the game, things quickly turned south for him. He would later go on to exit the game early with what appeared to be an arm injury. This is when Thomas Hoy came in, and despite struggling with location early, he settled down and got the Sharks through two innings. Brendan Mahoney came on to close out the remainder of the game, as he pitched the final 1.1 innings of the game while racking up two strikeouts.
On the Midville side of things, the Dodgers had a couple of standout performances as well. Their starting pitcher, Noah Burdier, showed a lot of toughness as he shook off the early danger he got himself into, and gave his team 3.2 solid innings of work. While Burdier struggled to find a feel for the zone, he finished his day with four strikeouts. Offensively, Vincent D’Andrea had a good game, going 1-1 with a RBI single and a walk. He scored twice as well. A couple of other players were very disciplined at the plate, tallying no official at-bats, but walking multiple times. These players include Jack Cintron, Joey Muzio, and Noah Burdier.
This game was called early by the umpires due to the 2-hour time limit rule. Both teams saluted each other, and refueled to get ready for Game 2.
Game 2
Following a mostly non-competitive first half of a doubleheader, you usually won’t get a better game in the second half. This wasn’t the case on Saturday morning, as the Midville Dodgers showed a lot of grit and toughness to keep their minds in check and to forget about the mistakes they made in Game 1. They came out with a short-term memory and put their recent loss behind them, and it truly showed. Although the Sharks came out victorious, the Dodgers never gave up and gave themselves a good chance to win the game.
Michael Dimario started the game on the mound for Midville, and he looked very sharp in the first inning. He struck out the first batter he faced, but one runner reached base and eventually came around to score on a passed ball. Despite the mistake leading to the early run, they didn’t let it affect them as when the Dodgers came up to the plate, they immediately tied it up. Dimario helped himself out in a big way with a leadoff triple. He would later score on a grounder off the bat of Evan Sadlowski.
Dimario would continue to power through the second inning, but when the third inning came around, his team began to fall apart. He walked a couple of batters and loaded the bases, but when it seemed like he might see light at the end of the tunnel, there were a couple of throwing errors and mental mistakes that led to the Sharks jumping out to a 5-1 lead. Dimario couldn’t shake it off and was replaced by Joey Muzio in the fourth inning. Muzio would go on to pitch the remainder of the game for the Dodgers.
As for the Sharks, they sent out Matt Vlahakis as their starting pitcher. He also looked to be playing at the top of his game as he cruised through the Midville lineup for 4 innings before being replaced by reliever Michael Canepa. Vlahakis topped off his day with 4 innings pitched, 6 strikeouts, two runs and two hits allowed. Canepa closed out the final 2 innings of the game, tallying up two strikeouts of his own while giving up no runs and one hit.
At the plate, some game standouts included Jonathon Hayes, Anthony Genna, and Michael Dimario. Hayes gave the Sharks another 3-3 game, this time hitting two singles and another home run. He knocked in 3 RBI’s with those hits. For Genna, he went 2-2 with a double, a single and a walk to go along with three runs scored. Michael Dimario gave the Dodgers all he could, going 2-2 with a triple and a single while scoring twice and stealing a base as well.
Despite the game being decided by a score of 8-2, it wasn’t due to a lack of effort from Midville. Although they couldn’t string together enough positive at-bats to score often, they did have a bunch of quality at-bats that they can look back at and build upon. With that being said, the Sharks played very sound baseball in both games on Saturday and they deserve a lot of credit for hanging in there and remaining focused throughout both games.
