Final: Pat-Med 4, Longwood 0
WP: Josh Knoth (5.1 IP, 13 Ks, 0 H, 4 BBs)Frank Kentoffio: 2-R HR
Bryan Frascogna: 2-R single to break scoreless tieThe teams are now even in the standings pic.twitter.com/MxWzNob6uY
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 8, 2023
Simply put, when you have a potential first round draft pick on the mound, you feel pretty good about your chances to win.
Even so, the Pat-Med Raiders found themselves in a 0-0 game against rival Longwood in the bottom of the third inning. Junior backstop, Bryan Frascogna, who spends most of the time doing thankless work behind the dish, took center stage and ripped a two-run single up the middle to score 2 runs. With Knoth on the mound, that was about one run more than they needed.
Bryan Frascogna broke the scoreless tie with a 2-R single with the bases loaded and that was all Josh Knoth & Jack Costello needed in the 4-0 victory for Pat-Med pic.twitter.com/FUjSoNNxBD
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 9, 2023
Knoth, who has pitched in front of an army of MLB scouts in every one of his outings, was lights-out as usual. It’s hard to continue to find the adjectives to describe the flame throwing ace. He struck out 12 over 5.1 innings, he allowed 0 hits (again), although he did walk 4. The four walks was four more than his last outing, when he fired a 19-K perfect game against Riverhead. For the season, Knoth has not allowed much of anything except allowing opposing batters to walk back to the dugout. He’s 6-0, and he’s struck out 94 batters over 35 innings with 3 hits allowed and 1 run. At this point, it is more surprising when he has a game that he allows a hit then when he throws a no-hitter. With his 96 MPH fastball and 80 MPH breaking ball, there’s not many hitters on Long Island capable of hitting either pitch. He is closing in on 300 career strikeouts and he would have accomplished that in 3 seasons. There’s not one team that would be comfortable with having to face him in the postseason. It will be very interesting to see who they wind up facing and how they deploy their ace.
In the meantime, they have a League to win.
Pat-Med entered trailing Longwood by one game, but due to the 3-game series, they would only need to win 2 of three to clinch first. Longwood sent Tyler Luizzi to the hill in a surprise move rather than starting ace CJ Forman. It’s a strategy that makes sense, as they were aware of the chances of getting shutout and would rather use their ace against the opposition’s No. 2 starter in this series.
Mid 1: Mikey Arbuiso draws a leadoff walk and steals second and third but Knoth strikes out the next 3 batters
Pat-Med coming up pic.twitter.com/Pvkmrl3jEZ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 8, 2023
The Raiders had a chance to score in the first inning when Jack Costello doubled and Mike Lazaridis walked but Luizzi was able to strand two runners on.
In the top of the third, things got interesting for a moment as Knoth had two outs and nobody on, but Mikey Arbuiso (who reached safely three times in this game) reached on a E3 that allowed him to reach second base. The next batter, Louis Kaleb, drew a walk. Knoth was able to make the big pitch when he had to and struck out Herbst to end the inning.
Pat-Med broke through in the home half of the third with the two-run single by Frascogna to give the Raiders the 2-0 lead. And if you’ve been watching Knoth at all this year, you know that a 2-0 lead is pretty safe.
They chose to take him out at 90 pitches, which was with one out in the sixth inning. Coach Frascogna noted that the pitch limit imposed by the state is 125 in May, but they have no interest in approaching that. They brought in Jack Costello who did his job getting two quick outs to end the inning.
Frank Kentoffio came up with a runner on first base in the bottom of the sixth and he crushed a two-run shot to open up a 4-0 lead and put the game out of reach. Costello went back out and allowed the first hit of the game on a bloop single to center to lead off the 7th, but he escaped without issue.
Longwood is a very good team and I don’t expect them to roll over after Game 1, especially with their ace on the mound in Game 2.
Side note: Many people have asked me how Knoth compares to Marcus Stroman, the veteran big leaguer who graduated Pat-Med in 2009. It’s a very good comparison, as both had illustrious HS careers and won the Yaz Award as juniors. The hype is very similar, I didn’t get to watch many of Stroman’s outings that year since I had my own outings during 2009, but I did face him many times when we were younger and watched his playoff win at Connetquot. The overpowering fastball and dominating breaking ball were comparable. Marcus was throwing 90-91 MPH in HS, but nobody really threw harder than that in HS 14 years ago so it felt the same. There was also always this mound presence with Marcus that was confident/cockiness where you knew you had no chance to get a hit. Knoth has a much more even-keeled approach on the mound, but the same level of dominance. Overall, I think he has a chance to get drafted in the first round, the potential and current talent is just impossible to ignore.
