FINAL: Storm Chasers sweep the Friday Night Lights double header Storm Chasers: 4 Roughriders: 2 pic.twitter.com/F3AJbhRu7W
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 9, 2022
by Chris Prystupa
There was good old-fashioned summer night under-the-lights baseball played today between the Garden City RoughRiders and the Storm Chasers. The Storm Chasers would go on to play well on both sides and allow them to come away with two wins this Friday.
Game one of the double header got started right away as the Storm Chasers got on the board early. Timmy Lynch, who also was the starting pitcher, hit a dribbler for a fielder’s choice that allowed the first run of the evening to come across. He would go all five innings on the mound, doing a great job of working through any potential big innings by escaping a few jams.
In the top of the third inning Justin Chong smashed a double into the left centerfield gap to drive home a run extending the Storm Chasers lead by another run to make it 2-0. In the bottom of half of that inning, Timmy Lynch would find himself in trouble for the second straight inning but through a series of back-to-back strikeouts he was able to shut down a potential big inning for the Roughriders.
The top of the fourth inning would be huge for the Storm Chasers as they continued to add to their lead and give themselves a bit of breathing room. It started with Leo Bottero grounding into a fielder’s choice to bring home a run. Gavin Ferreira would follow that up with another RBI fielder’s choice of his own to make it a 4-0 ballgame. Control issues seemed to take over for the Roughriders as they then issued back-to-back bases loaded walks surrendering over another two runs. Jack Zagariello would step up to the plate and cash in big with a single to score two more. Before the Roughriders could get out of the inning yet another bases loaded walk was issued, capping off a six run fourth for the Storm Chasers.
The Roughriders wouldn’t go quietly as they cracked into the scoreboard courtesy of Finbar Galligan, who blooped one over the infield scoring their first run of the game. In the fifth and final inning due to the time limit, the Storm Chasers would gain their tenth and final run on an overthrow after a Constantino Famiglietti single. In the bottom of the fifth, the Roughriders would scratch across another run via defensive indifference but would wind up losing this one 10-2.
In game two of the double header the Roughriders scored first blood as they jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a Gavin Rogers RBI double in the top of the first. Both teams would each capitalize on good defense and some base running mistakes keeping the score 1-0 until the third.
Here’s Justin Chong, he was one of the main contributors in the Storm Chasers sweep this evening. He spoke with us about how he plays with intensity and what the key to his big day was up at the plate. pic.twitter.com/fbtPHWxuid
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 9, 2022
In the bottom half of the third, the Storm Chasers came alive as Dylan Payano ripped an RBI single to tie the game. Justin Chong would follow Payano up with another double into the gap but this time bringing home two runs instead of one. Jack Zagariello would cap off their four-run inning with an RBI groundout thus turning the game in their favor.
The Roughriders would scratch a run across and cut the lead in half in the top of the sixth inning on a Nicholas Pospisil fielder’s choice. The Storm Chasers then buckled down over the course of the sixth and seventh inning to solidify the sweep and earn two victories. The Roughriders fell to 0-6-2 while the Storm Chasers improved to 4-3 on the season.
