by Chris Prystupa
FINAL: Massapequa 2 Commack 1 pic.twitter.com/ozGuqGNW5C
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 4, 2022
In a rematch of the 2021 Class AA Long Island Championship, the Massapequa Chiefs and the Commack Cougars met once again in the battle for the title. Rather than being a slugfest these two teams put their pitching and defense to the test.
After a scoreless first inning for Massapequa’s Erik Paulsen, the Chiefs were looking to provide some early run support as the first two hitters of the game, Matt Castrogiovanni and Tim Dorman, reached on back-to-back singles. Commack’s starting pitcher Eric Mohr induced a soft line drive which turned into a double play ending the threat.
In the top half of the second inning, second baseman Michael Pulcini brought in the game’s first run via a solo shot to left field putting the Cougars ahead by one. Massapequa capitalized on multiple walks including a bases loaded walk to tie the game at one. Ryan Krzieminski came on in relief to stop Massapequa in their tracks and prevent any further damage in the inning.
The middle innings of the ballgame would be scoreless but still packed with big defensive plays and timely pitching. In the top of the third Commack had runners on first and second threatening to score. Connor Schram put a charge into one but Michael Vilardi had other plans. The right fielder laid out and took away an extra base hit as well as prevented two runs from scoring with a diving catch. In the bottom of the third inning Massapequa managed to get runners on first and third but Krzieminski struck out Paul Dulanto to end the inning.
FINAL: Massapequa 2 Commack 1 pic.twitter.com/ozGuqGNW5C
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 4, 2022
In the top of the fifth, Commack would wind up making another pitching change bringing in Evan Kay after a leadoff single by Paulsen. Carter DeSousa would drop a sacrifice bunt and beat it out, leaving Commack with two men on and nobody out. After a walk to load the bases Vilardi would send one deep enough to score a run on a huge go ahead sac fly. Commack did an excellent job in limiting the damage by turning another double play to keep the deficit at one run.
Erik Paulsen would go back out for the seventh inning in which he would close the door and earn the Chiefs the Long Island Championship. Other than giving up a homerun Paulsen was terrific, he threw a one run complete game with six strikeouts only allowing two hits on just 85 pitches.
Massapequa will now depart for Binghamton to begin their quest for potentially another state title. They open up against McQuaid Jesuit at Binghamton University at 4 p.m. on Friday.
