By Blake Buscemi
Jason Shockley discusses his big day and his future aspirations for this season. pic.twitter.com/E7Lnfrzqjq
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 13, 2022
The Shelter Island Bucks and the Riverhead Tomcats faced off in an afternoon matchup Tuesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Park. Playoffs approaching in the next couple of weeks makes every game crucial going forward.
Rutgers’ Cole Hansen took the mound for the Tomcats against Liam Adpierto of Villanova and the Bucks. Hansen is having a nice year for himself, posting a 3.51 ERA thus far across 25 innings. Shelter Island was able to get to him early, however, as Bradley University’s Ryan Vogel started the game with a double to right field and Pace University’s T.J. Keefe drove him in with an RBI single to make it a 1-0 game early. The Tomcats were able to make up for it in the bottom of the inning thanks to an RBI single from Rutgers’ catcher Jason Shockley, Brookdale’s Nick Papageorge reaching on an error, and Ulster’s Ty Orologio ripping a single to score three runs and take a 3-1 lead after an inning.
The Tomcats’ offensive ambush did not stop there. Robert Affenita of Adelphi reached via error to begin the inning and John Nowak of Bates drove him in with a hard-hit ball to shortstop that was not handled cleanly. Jason Shockley added a couple more RBIs to his credit with another single to right field to make it a 6-1 game in favor of Riverhead.
After a double by the league leader in batting average Blake Salamon and a T.J. Keefe sacrifice fly in the top of the third, Hansen settled in nicely. He held the Bucks to only three earned runs while striking out nine batters total on the day.
Jared Restmeyer closes it out for the Tomcats with a strikeout. Cole Hansen gets credit for the win.
Final: Tomcats 13, Bucks 6 pic.twitter.com/0iRe5qvT1B— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 12, 2022
Jason Shockley added to his big day in the bottom of the fourth, launching a deep home run over the left field wall to make it 8-2. RBIs from UMass’s Jacob Sloss and Sacred Heart’s Dante D’Amore made it 10-2 after five innings. Andrew Flowers of Northwoods University drove in two in the top of the sixth, but it was of no use as the Tomcats added three more runs in the bottom half of the frame to make it 13-4. Shelter Island managed to put up two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was not enough to make a difference in the outcome. Riverhead improves to 11-15 with the win. Jason Shockley’s phenomenal day at the plate ended in four hits to his credit as well as five RBIs.
