It’s only fitting that Luke Filippi handles it himself to end the game and win the Class C Long Island Championship for Port Jefferson pic.twitter.com/lmcrT5AE96
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 3, 2022
There’s no question that Luke Filippi has been the best player on the field in every game that he’s played this season. The Albany-commit finished the regular season with an unblemished ERA of 0.00 and struck out nearly two batters per inning. Detractors may question the level of competition in League 8, but the reality is that he has been head-and-shoulders above his peers in every way possible.
He continued his remarkable season as he helped lead the Port Jefferson Royals to their first Class C Long Island Championship since 2008. The League MVP allowed only a sacrifice fly but was untouchable otherwise. He pitched a complete game, striking out 8 batters and even putting an exclamation point on the game by catching a line drive right back at him.
The Royals won by the score of 6-1, and they improve to 20-4 on the season. Now that they’ve captured the Suffolk County and Long Island Championships, they advance to play Chester tomorrow in the New York State Regional Final. The winner will advance to Binghamton for the New York State Championship.
The Royals faced their toughest challenge yet this season against Carle Place RHP Ben Nosovitch. The Queens-commit has great stuff and put together an outstanding season. He fired a scoreless first inning but the Royals got to him in the second inning with the first run coming on a bases loaded HP of Frank Andreani to score Natti Mullen. After a strikeout, Luke Filippi helped himself with a sac fly to right field to score Danny Owens and make it 2-0.
With the season that Filippi has had, that was probably going to be enough regardless of it they sleepwalked the rest of the way.
He was able to strike out two more batters in the third inning bringing his total to five through three shutout.
In the home half of the third, they added two runs on a two-run single by Evan Raymond to score Ruari Rago and Abigail Rolfe.
Filippi had his own hiccup of the game in the fourth inning when he allowed a sac fly to Patrick McCarthy to score Jason Seligman – although his triple probably could’ve been caught. Regardless, that’s all that Filippi allowed and it became clear early on in this game that he was not going to lose focus. He did allow two singles in the fifth inning but was able to bear down when he needed to.
Port Jefferson head coach Jesse Rosen following the Long Island Championship victory pic.twitter.com/Gyx6HVGAMW
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 3, 2022
Port Jeff took advantage of some command issues from the Carle Place pitchers who hit two batters and walked three in the inning which brought in a run. At that point, the game was out of reach but the Royals did add one more in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Natti Mullen.
In the top of the seventh, Filippi allowed a two-out double to right center field but showed his athleticism with the catch on the comebacker to end the game.
It is their first Long Island Championship since 2008, they will look to stay hot tomorrow and ride this momentum.
