By Thomas Cregan
Vinny Giambona with a 3 run triple to put Island Trees up now 13-1 over Wheatley pic.twitter.com/HMTPFnAZO7
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 23, 2022
Island Trees, led by big performances from Connor Waiting and Vinny Giambona, rolled through Wheatley with a 14–1 victory in 6 innings.
In what was set to be a big-time non-league matchup between two of last year’s Long Island Conference Champions, Island Trees showed just how deep their lineup is. Featuring a pitching matchup between James Tercynski (Wheatley) and Matt Ramirez (Island Trees). Both pitchers started off the first inning well only allowing one run each however, the first two innings were not an indication of what was to come.
Island Trees would open the scoring with Connor Waiting who blasted a solo home run over the left field fence. Wheatley would quickly respond with a double from Danny Gillette and an RBI single from Jake Meirowitz. Island Trees would retake the lead in the second inning and never give it back. Starting with a leadoff walk by Joe Moen followed by a by back-to-back singles from Chris Antonelli and Tim Palermo – the second of which allowing Moen to score from second.
Island trees continued to pour it on throughout the 3rd and 4th innings with base hits coming all throughout their lineup forcing Wheatley to go to the bullpen early ending the day for James Tercynski now going to Louie Baldasano. However, Island Trees continued to get on base in almost every way possible with Justin Mott hitting a single, Vinny Giambona with a double and Chris Antonelli working a walk after a tough and lengthy at bat against Baldasano.
Several players throughout the Island Trees lineup collected RBIs and showed good patience throughout facing multiple arms out of Wheatley’s bullpen and managing to work walks to pass the baton and drive those runners in.
Connor Waiting would hit his second homerun of the game after a double by leadoff hitter Jonathan Uzzo to add on to their already impressive lead now at 10-1 giving him 3 RBIs in the game. In the fifth inning after an intentional walk was issued to Connor Waiting, Vinny Giambona stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. Giambona lined a hard-hit ball down the right field line which ended up in the corner of the outfield allowing three runners to score and Giambona to advance all the way to third picking up 3 RBIs and making the score 13-1 at the end of the fifth inning.
Island Trees would add on one more run in the top of the 6th inning before Wheatley failed to answer back calling the game at 14-1 after 6. This was an impressive performance by an Island Trees team that admittedly were not off to a great start to their season. Though this game did not have an effect on either team’s league record being a non-league contest, it seemed to be a morale boost for Island Trees to beat a team that was so far undefeated in their conference. The Island Trees dugout was extremely loud and energetic throughout in support of both their pitching staff and their offense.
Following the game, Connor Waiting spoke about his performance he said, “I was seeing the ball really well and just wanted to be able to spark my team and get something going for us on offense”. Further adding “This could be a huge boost for us since we didn’t start the year how we would have hoped and playing a good team like Wheatley who are undefeated so far in conference and being able to win like that could be a turning point for us”. Though this was a tough loss for the so far undefeated Wheatley Wildcats they will be looking to regroup and get back to form in their next series. Island Trees hope that this will spark their team and they will look to build off this momentum throughout the rest of their season.
