by Blake Buscemi
Liam Doyle discusses his start, his pitch arsenal, and his goal going forward into next year. pic.twitter.com/oru7fPV981
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 23, 2022
The final game of the regular season for the Riverhead Tomcats and the Shelter Island Bucks took place at Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton on Saturday afternoon in the second game of a doubleheader. This game was a must-win for Shelter Island, as they were one game out of the playoff race going into this.
Nick Papageorge took the mound for the Tomcats to start the game. The Tomcats have had a busy schedule recently and were low on pitching, so most of the arms they put on the mound today were not primary pitchers. Shelter Island was able scratch one run across in the first with an RBI single from Billy Sullivan to drive in Blake Salamon. Salamon ended up taking home the league batting title following the conclusion of the game, finishing the summer with a ridiculous .408 average.
Shelter Island went with Liam Doyle of Russell Sage College to start on the mound today. He was dealing from the get-go, striking out Ethan Aube and inducing groundouts from Robert Affenita and Quinn Rooks to go one, two, three. The Bucks continued to tack on with a single from Conor Cooke followed by an RBI groundout from Andrew Flowers later in the frame to make it a 2-0 game.
Doyle continued to deal, retiring the side in order in the second inning and stranding a runner on second base to end the third inning with only one hit allowed. The Bucks offense stayed hot in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of four walks by driving in two runs via the sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 4-0.
Barrett gets it done, inducing the final out on a dribbler. The Bucks are currently waiting to hear if they have a playoff spot with the game in Peconic deciding that.
Final: Shelter Island 6, Riverhead 3 pic.twitter.com/7IjCFvlZRB— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 23, 2022
After a quiet fifth inning, the Buck bats were able to put another one on the board. Ryan King led off the inning with a walk and took advantage of the lack of coverage on the bases, immediately stealing second and third base. Andrew Flowers drove home his third run of the day with a groundout to make it 5-0 in favor of Shelter Island.
Riverhead’s offense started to come alive in the bottom of the sixth with four consecutive hits resulting in two runs scored, but it was of no use as the deficit was too large for the amount of time left in the game. Each team scratched across one more run a piece in the seventh inning, but the game ended in a 6-3 victory for the Bucks in a shortened game since it was a doubleheader. Liam Doyle ended up one out shy from a complete game, but was forced to be taken out after six and two-thirds innings due to pitch count. He was credited with the win in this one.
This game caps off the regular season for the HCBL. Playoffs will begin in the next couple of days.
