By Thomas Cregan
Port Washington coach Matt Holzer after his teams’ 10-4 win over Oceanside pic.twitter.com/uNfOSnDJM0
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 12, 2022
Port Washington defeats Oceanside 9-4 propelling them to the post season in dramatic fashion.
Last year, Port Washington’s playoff hopes came down to a tie breaker game against Oceanside, in which they lost and missed out on the postseason. However, this year in their final series, once again facing well known foe Oceanside, they were victorious.
This game featured a pitching matchup between Maritime-commit Will Chu for Port Washington and Peter Davies for Oceanside. The first trip to the plate for Oceanside looked like they were coming in with plans to abuse the short right field fence at Port Washington’s home field. After a double from Luke Villela, Justin Delgado blasted a 2-run homer off Chu over the fence in right field.
Port Washington was shut down in the first by Davies after three consecutive groundouts by Milgrim, Iuorio, and Gawley. Chu took back control in the top of the 2nd giving up a hard-hit fly ball to Pete Sofocli into the gap in center which was run down by center fielder Dylan Forman with a miraculous catch, then issuing a walk to Kevin Klein who would be caught trying to steal 2nd before retiring two more Oceanside bats to end the top of the 2nd.
Port Washington would respond quickly in the bottom of the inning with a double from Jack Robinson, Will Chu reaching on an infield single and a groundout by Chris Carillo would move the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Then up to the plate came Danny Alexander who showcased his opposite field power hitting a 3-run shot off Peter Davies over the right field fence to give his team the lead – one that they would never give back.
Oceanside would continue to show prowess at the plate in the 2nd with a double from Forman, a walk by Lucas Milgrim, and an attempted bunt single by Anthony Iuorio which led to an out but moved the runners again over to 2nd and 3rd. Ryan Gawley would then smoke a ball down the left field line past the third baseman allowing two runners to score putting Port Washington up 5-2 in the 2nd. The two teams remained quiet until the top half of the fourth inning with Oceanside up to bat. Sean Varon worked a walk before Pete Sofocli stepped up to the plate and hit a no-doubt home run well over the fence in right bringing Oceanside within one at 5-4.
Port would continue to stay hot at the plate chasing Davies out of the game in the 5th inning Oceanside would bring in LHP Jake Lunenfeld in relief. This would, however, not change their fortune in this game as Milgrim hit a double up the middle of the field and Iuorio would bunt for a single with a close play at 1st moving Milgrim to 3rd. Gawley would stay hot at the plate hitting an RBI single to score Milgrim. Port Washington, after going to Jeff Radinsky to replace Chu on the mound, who held Oceanside scoreless in the 4th would then bring out starting pitcher Michael Andrew in the 5th to shut down Oceanside’s offense and that’s what he did. Port Washington continued to add on at the plate with a two-run double once again off the bat of Ryan Gawley who finished the game going 3-for-4, with 5 RBIs this would put Port Washington up 9-4 in the bottom of the 6th. The final run for Port would be tallied by Chu with a sacrifice fly into left field. Andrew would come back out for the final inning to close at the game for his side after retiring the first two batters Pallentino hit a fly ball into center field which was once again run down by Dylan Forman making another great catch to seal the game for Port Washington in front of an ecstatic home crowd propelling them into the playoffs in their final game of the season.
After the game I spoke with Port Washington coach Matt Holzer about their dramatic win to send them into the playoffs.
He said, “I’m so proud and happy for this group of guys who have been putting in hard work year-round, The leadership group has been awesome and this is a well-deserved accomplishment for us.” When asked about the performances provided by his pitchers and their excellent performance at the plate he stated, “The plan was to bring it back to Mikey after Will and its great to see us putting it all together and being able to get good at bats and an overall great win to send us to the playoffs.”
