By Blake Buscemi
Nick Koustulias goes the distance today, throwing a complete game shutout. The game was called due to a time limit, so it ended in an LI Elite victory after the top of the 6th. Nick takes us through what allowed him to dominate today.
Final: LI Elite 6, B1000 Seminoles 0 pic.twitter.com/Dfu5iP2Mgj— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 3, 2022
A 17u Boys of Summer league matchup took place at the PAL complex in Holtsville on Saturday. Facing off against each other was the Long Island Elite Showcase squad against the B1000 Seminoles-Timpone.
Nick Kostulias took the hill for the Elite against Chris Bohan of the Seminoles. This was a doubleheader, so both teams were looking to get quality innings out of their guys in order to get through both games without burning their pitching staffs.
Both pitchers were locked in early on. Kostulias induced a pop out to shortstop from Peter Murphy, a flyout to left from Ryan Galley, and a flyout to right field from Ryan Castrillon. Bohan let up a double to right-center field to Jeffrey Decina, but was able to escape the inning without harm as he got Michael Cucinella to lineout to short and Strobel and Feldman to strikeout.
LI Elite escapes the jam thanks to a diving catch from center fielder Michael Cucinella pic.twitter.com/eFgvUDazIM
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 3, 2022
The first runs of the game came in the bottom of the second, where Joey Moen led off the inning with a double, Joseph Meyer reached on an infield single, and Robert Crehan singled to drive in Moen. Meyer scored on an overthrow to second base to make it a 2-0 game early.
After another shutout inning from Kostulias, the Elite added more onto their lead. A sequence of an infield single, walk, sacrifice fly, error by the third baseman, an infield single, and a couple groundouts led to three more runs coming across in the inning and the lead being stretched to 5-0.
It was smooth sailing for Nick Kostulias after this. He proceeded to strikeout three batters and only allow one hit in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings combined to go the distance in a time-shortened ballgame. An RBI double by James Strobel in the bottom of the fifth padded the lead even more and made it 6-0. That is how the game would end, with Long Island Elite Showcase taking the victory.
Kostulias’s final line: 6 innings, 4 hits, and 4 strikeouts. The Elite look to continue this momentum into their league and tournament games in the coming weeks.
