by Blake Buscemi
Paul Napolitano discusses his approach at the dish and Next Level’s goals for the rest of the season. pic.twitter.com/ZgwVC22tpI
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 18, 2022
The second game of the day was a matchup of two highly competitive organizations: MVP Beast and Next Level Baseball. The pitching matchup featured John Ruchalski of Next Level and Michael Lombardo of Team Beast. They both matched zeros in the first inning as Ruchalski induced three groundouts and Lombardo induced two fly outs as well as being helped out by catcher Wyatt Fritton, who threw out a runner stealing.
Beast scored the first runs of the game in the top of the second by the means of a successful squeeze executed by Nicholas Columbano and a throwing error by the catcher the next batter to score a second run. Beast added another run to the board in the third with another squeeze, this time by Maxwell Urena.
Next Level’s comeback started in the bottom of the fourth with a Paul Napolitano double down the left field line and a Chris Sais single to center field to score him. The rally that ended up being the difference in the ballgame came in the bottom of the fifth. This began with an infield single by Binghamton-commit Tim Hennig, followed by an RBI double by Torin Kassebaum, a bunt single by Hofstra-commit Mike Sweeney, an RBI groundout by Matt Fliegler, an RBI single by Cole LeClair, and an RBI single by Napolitano that he ended up scoring on via an error later in the inning.
Next Level gets the win as Matt Connolly closes it out.
Final: Next Level 6, Beast 3 pic.twitter.com/eBWoZqIZyt— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 18, 2022
The score remained this way until the end, when Matt Connolly got Leo Feingold to pop out to end the game. Matt Malone, one of the Next Level relief pitchers, was credited with the win.
