Jonas Means (SJB 2023) with a 2-R single to left and Tri State takes an early 2-0 lead over Hauppauge pic.twitter.com/phljGZzOsI
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 1, 2021
Tri-State Arsenal hit the ground running in the opening game of the Northeast Elite tournament at Brentwood State Park. After three walks drawn to open up the game, Jonas Means ripped a two-run single through the left side to score Ryan Tam and Alex Johnston to give them a 2-0 lead. They added two more runs on an RBI single by Shane Burns and a bases loaded walk drawn by Gavin Butler to give them an early cushion.
They would never look back at they were able to win via run-rule, 12-1, over the Hauppauge Eagles. The starting pitcher for the Arsenal, talented southpaw Gavin Butler (North Shore 2023) was very effective in his two innings of work – which allows him to pitch on Sunday if needed. He worked around a two-out walk to Nick Neglia in the first inning to strikeout two batters. In the second inning, he walked the leadoff batter, Chris Diesso (Hauppauge 2024) but he struck out Jack Magill and induced two groundouts to escape any trouble.
His offense had extended their lead to 5-0 by the second inning. A leadoff HBP of Ryan Tam, who stole second base, came around to score on an RBI groundout by Sean Maldonado.
The Arsenal called on southpaw reliever John Pulos and he fired a scoreless inning, working around a two-out error to end the inning with a strikeout.
In the home half of the third, the Arsenal had no interest in giving away at bats. They used four consecutive one-out hits by Sean Vinning, Shane Burns, John Pulos and Mark Dedona to open a cushy 7-0 lead. After a walk to Alex Johnston, they stranded the bases loaded to leave the score 7-0.
The Eagles were able to get on the board in the fourth inning on an RBI ground out off the bat of Ray Russo. He scored Diesso, who led off with a well-struck double.
That was not nearly enough, though, as the Arsenal responded with three more runs in the home half of the fourth, with big blow coming on a two-run single by Mark Dedona to make it 11-1. At that point, all they needed was a scoreless inning to enforce the run-rule, which they were able to do.
With the victory, they put themselves in good position for the rest of the tournament but they will need to play LI Titans Papa at 1:15pm at Stony Brook University, while the Eagles will play Bonnie Monarchs at 11 am at Stony Brook.
