Final: William Floyd 6, Sachem East 4
WP: Riley LakeJayden Zayas: 3-R HR during 6-run third inning
William Floyd (10-9) advances to face Ward Melville tomorrow pic.twitter.com/80cZXW6pSC
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 19, 2022
You can throw the postseason seeds away when it comes to two teams that are familiar with one another. No. 8 William Floyd and No. 2 Sachem East squared off for the fourth time this season – in the most important game to date – and it was the upstart Colonials who came away with the 6-4 upset victory over the League I champs.
During the regular season, Sachem East had won two of three, but coach Keith Kobasiuk stated that his team was “competitive all year, and we were competitive against them,” and that they are a “next day type of team – just keep working towards that next day.”
They scored all six of their runs in the third inning against Sachem East’s sophomore RHP Alex Apicella, who was outstanding otherwise. The six-run rally started by William Floyd’s starting pitcher, Riley Lake, who hit an infield single and stole second. After a strikeout, the Colonial’s received an RBI double by Joe LoMonaco to score Lake for the first run of the inning. Will Winter followed with a single of his own. STAC-commit Colin Ross ripped an RBI single to make it 2-1 in favor of William Floyd. Jason King followed suit with an RBI single for the third run of the inning and that set the stage for Jayden Zayas who had the most significant hit of the inning with a three-run blast to left center field to open up a 6-1 lead. It was a shocking development considering how in control Apicella was for the first two inning.
To his credit, he completely settled in after that – allowing his team to scratch across some runs and come back into the game.
In the bottom of the third inning, Nick Oelcher, who is also a STAC-commit, ripped an RBI triple to right field to score Ty Margolis and make it a 6-2 game. As it started to get to the later innings, the pressure was certainly mounting for Sachem East who was able to make a valiant comeback attempt which started in the sixth inning.
After Richie Heyder smoked a line drive to right that was caught for the first out, Nick Oelcher walked to bring up Pat Krempasky. He singled to left to bring up Apicella. The sophomore helped himself with an RBI single to right center to cut the deficit to 6-3 The following batter, Sam Leonard, hit a sac fly to center to make it a 6-4 game and bring up the tying run. But Lake was able to make a pitch when he needed to and end the inning with a flyout.
After a quick top of the seventh, the Arrows came back up with a comeback on their mind. After Jake Acker grounded out on the first pitch for the first out, Joe Richetti drew a one-out walk to bring up the meat of the order. After a strikeout was recorded for the second out, Richie Heyder drew a walk to put the potential tying run on base.
Jayden Zayas came on in relief against the tough lefty with one thing on his mind. On a 3-2 pitch, he was able to rear back and get that swing & miss on a high fastball to end the game and pull off the upset over the League I champs.
Lake went 6.2 innings and struck out three batters and worked around three walks and seven hits. Zayas slammed the door with the save. Following the game, Coach Kobasiuk stated that Lake had primarily been a reliever this year. That is the beauty of postseason baseball. A No. 8 seed can upset the No. 2 seed with a starting pitcher that they hadn’t asked to get 19 outs all season.
With the victory, William Floyd will now face Ward Melville, who had beaten Lindenhurst on the field behind them. The season is over for Sachem East, who were looking for their first county title since 2005.
