With an impending storm in the forecast, North Babylon and Hauppauge attempted to get a full game in on Thursday afternoon, but lightning during the bottom of the sixth forced the umpires to call the game off – which will be completed on Monday at 2pm with a 3-3 tie.
The game itself was outstanding, as the Hauppauge Eagles attempted to salvage the third and final game of the series against a talented North Babylon team.
Hauppauge sent Matt Neglia to the mound against LHP Justin Arciniegas. Neglia struck out two batters in an impressive 1-2-3 inning against the high-octane North Bab lineup. Their leadoff hitter, Devonte Bailey, is batting .440, and Eric Schultiesz is batting .460.
In the home half of the first, Matt Neglia singled and stole second. After Mike Oliveto flew out to left, John Margolies drew a walk. Jon Connors sliced a double down the right field line to bring both runs in. Arciniegas escaped the jam with back-to-back strikeouts.
In the top of the second, Neglia worked around a one-out double by Chris Stumpf to strike out three batters – bringing his total to five after just two innings.
Hauppauge went down 1-2-3 in the second and in the top of the third, Isiah Gutierrez led off with a single to right center field, and moved to second on a comebacker to the mound. When he was on second, though, he was picked off on a perfectly executed daylight play. After Bailey singled to right, Schultiesz struck out to end the inning.
The third inning ended in a peculiar way. Freshman SS Mike Oliveto drew a one-out walk and stole second and third to get himself 90 feet away. Unsatisfied, he attempted the rare straight steal of home but Arciniegas was alerted early enough that allowed him to step off and get him caught in a rundown which was executed.
B5: Eric Schulteisz smacks a 2-R triple to dead center to tie the game pic.twitter.com/CEmFqDhN6d
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 14, 2022
The next bit of action came in the top of the fifth when Dom Girardi led off with a single. Gutierrez doubled to left which put two runners in scoring position with zero out. Coach Josh Gutes went to the bullpen, bringing in John Margolies. After a big strikeout and an infield fly, Schultiesz smoked a two-run triple to dead center to tie the game. Margolies escaped the inning with a fly out to left by Liam Daly.
In the bottom of the fifth, Matt Neglia singled to left with one out and moved to second on a grounder to the right side. With two out, Margolies came through with a clutch RBI single up the middle to make it a 3-2 game.
The lead didn’t last long, though, as North Babylon answered right back with a game-tying hit of their own. A one-out walk by Chris Stumpf and an errant throw an attempted pick off brought up Dylan Rhein who ripped an RBI double just inside of the left field line.
The inning came to a close with two strikeouts, just in time for the strike of lightning which prompted the umpires to convene and call the game off for the day.
With the religious holidays this weekend, the earliest the game can be completed is Monday at 2pm.
