By Blake Buscemi
Batuyios goes the distance, Mount Sinai takes the win.
Final: Mount Sinai 6, SWR 2 pic.twitter.com/O0eywBOZHR— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 18, 2022
It was a battle of two aces as Chris Batuyios took on Billy Steele in Suffolk Class A Conference IV pool play at Shoreham Wading River High School this afternoon. Both are highly regarded arms in the conversation to win the Paul Gibson Award, so this was expected to be a low-scoring game before it started. Steele, who committed to West Point last year, had yet to give up a run going into this start and has consistently been sitting over 90 MPH with his fastball. Batuyios, a St. John’s commit, is an arm who consistently fills up the zone with strikes while also striking out twice as many hitters as he has innings pitched.
The game started as many thought it would, with Steele and Batuyios both recording 1-2-3 innings in the 1st. After Will Rodgers reached on an E6 and Franklin-Pierce-commit Kyle Salvati walked, Joey Valenti ripped a double to right to give Mount Sinai an early 2-0 lead. Despite a dangerous Shoreham Wading River lineup, Batuyios dealt from the beginning. SWR was able to score on an error by the Mount Sinai second baseman, but there was very little hard contact made against Batuyios.
Steele and Batuyios continued to battle through this one as the score stayed 2-1 in favor of Mount Sinai, until 5-hole hitter Joey Marchese took advantage of a high fastball and drove it over the left field fence to tie it up at 2.
Right when it seemed to be a close game, Mount Sinai came out swinging in the top of the seventh. L.J. Bohne got the rally started by beating out an infield single to the shortstop. Two batters later, Miami-commit J.T. Caruso drew his second walk of the day, which was followed by a Matt Galli RBI single to right field. Galli, only a junior, is one of the top uncommitted players on the island. He’s been over 90 MPH with his fastball this season with the potential for more velocity to come later on.
Mount Sinai did not stop there. Will Rodgers hit a liner to the first baseman that was dropped, leading to Caruso being able to score and Galli managing to escape a rundown and arrive at second on the play. The lone freshman in the starting lineup, Bennie Franquiz, then smoked a base hit over the second baseman’s head, scoring Gall. Franquiz made his mark on the team as an eighth grader last year and has proven that he is worthy of starting due to his compact left-handed stroke and smooth defensive actions. Kyle Salvati dumped a single into left to finish off the rally and the inning ended at 6-2 favoring Mount Sinai.
Batuyios went out for the seventh and was able to go the distance, recording a strikeout to end it. He was credited with the win in this one.
Chris Batuyios takes us through what allowed him to get it done today. pic.twitter.com/TTnMSwDDP6
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 18, 2022
Mount Sinai will face the winner of the Sayville versus Bayport Blue Point game and are hoping to maintain this momentum throughout their playoff run.
