Jacob Rentz earned his second win of the season and Bennie Franquiz continued his incredible start to the season with a 3-hit day including an RBI single to break a scoreless tie in the fourth. @GCsports pic.twitter.com/fQAazht5Tf
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 22, 2023
With the game tied 0-0 in the top of the fourth inning and a runner on second, Mount Sinai‘s shortstop, Bennie Franquiz, stepped to the plate against hard-throwing left-handed pitcher Nick Frusco. In most circumstances, a team would prefer the lefty-lefty match up. But with a .650 hitter at the plate, this was a scenario it would’ve made sense for an intentional walk. Franquiz made him pay with an RBI single up the middle to send his dugout into a frenzy and give Mount Sinai the 1-0 lead. They added another run on an RBI single by Jacob Schneider to make it a 2-0 lead.
Mount Sinai’s starting pitcher, Jacob Rentz, did his job as he allowed just 1 run but he did run into some trouble in the fifth inning. Jack Kiernan hit a one-out single and that brought up catcher Mike Schleider. The dangerous hitter crushed one off the top of the left field fence – just narrowly missing a game-tying shot. Instead he settled for a double and it put runners on 2nd & 3rd with one out. That was all for Rentz, who was relieved by Max Reichenbach. After a pop out for the second out of the inning, Joey Citrangola walked to load the bases and so did McBrien to bring in a run. With the game on the line and Mount Sinai clinging to their 2-1 lead, Reichenbach came up huge with a strikeout of opposing pitcher, Nick Frusco, on a great change up to end the inning.
Mid 5: Miller Place gets on the board on a bases loaded walk but Reichenbach strands the bases loaded with a strikeout
Mount Sinai 2, Miller Place 1 pic.twitter.com/xzdhsJ1uzX
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 21, 2023
In the bottom of the fifth, Mount Sinai added an insurance run on a two-out RBI single by Andrew Yanez to make it a 3-1 ballgame. Miller Place made a pitching change – bringing in Joey Citrangola for Nick Frusco. The southpaw ended up striking out 10, walking one and allowing 1 ER over 4.2 innings but left trailing 3-1.
Bottom 5: Andrew Yanez comes through with a 2-out single and Mount Sinai extends their lead to 3-1. Miller Place going to the pen pic.twitter.com/I0kl0slbgC
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 21, 2023
Citrangola did his job – ending the inning with a strikeout looking.
In the top of the sixth, Reichenbach worked around a two-out walk to end the inning with a ground out to third.
Mount Sinai added another insurance run in the home half of the sixth on a balk to make it 4-1.
Mount Sinai had their hard-throwing LHP and Miami-commit JT Caruso come on in relief for the middle of the order. Caruso wound up walking two to bring the potential tying run but coming up big with a strikeout on a nasty breaking ball to end the game.
Final: Mount Sinai 4, Miller Place 1
WP: Jacob Rentz
S: JT CarusoBennie Franquiz: 3-for-4, RBI, run scored pic.twitter.com/35iXA62tG1
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 21, 2023
With the victory, Mount Sinai improves to 6-5 on the season to tie with Miller Place. Coach Reichenbach stated that the offense has really been carrying the team recently. He thought they had the best pitching staff on Long Island with guys like Chris Batuyios, JT Caruso, Max Reichenbach and Jacob Rentz, but that hasn’t been the case through the early part of the season. Instead, it’s been the bat of Franquiz, who has 23 hits in 11 games and 17 stolen bases.
The Mustangs are a battle-tested team, they won the 2021 Long Island Championship and lost to Rocky Point in the Suffolk Class A Finals. They seem to be just hitting their stride which is bad news for the rest of the Conference.
