Final: Garden City 4, Mineola 3
WP: Xander Palmer
S: Matt LiberopoulosAidan Walsh HBP to score go-ahead run pic.twitter.com/FpLQKSeaI7
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 15, 2023
No. 6 Garden City (15-3) hosted No. 11 Mineola (11-7) this afternoon on an absolutely perfect day in Garden City. The Trojans overcame a 3-1 deficit against a talented Mustangs team. There was not much offense at all in this game as there was a combined three hits and Mineola’s first hit came in the 7th inning.
Garden City used a trio of left-handed pitchers to combine for the victory. They started ECU-commit Gabe Beschloss against Mineola’s RHP EJ Van Grembergen. Beschloss had his good velocity, but his command was not at its best today. He walked two batters in the first inning, although he was able to avoid any damage thanks to a strikeout of Peter Haralambidis. He struck out two more batters in the second inning, working around a two-out error by the second inning that prolonged the inning.
Garden City was able to get on the board in the home half of the second inning. Matt Liberopoulos reached on an E4 to start the inning and after the next two batters were retired, Danny Psaki walked and Jack Fanning drove him in with an RBI single. Matt Guida gave one a ride to deep center but it stayed in the yard to end the inning.
In the third inning, Beschloss ran into serious trouble with the fastball command and he walked five batters including three with the bases loaded to give Mineola a 3-1 lead. He was able to escape the jam on a line out to SS to end the inning.
Undeterred, Garden City was able to get one back. Evan Cabral, Braden Soutar and Tyler Gorman all drew walks and Aidan Walsh was hit by a pitch to bring in a run and make it a 3-2 ballgame. Danny Psaki flew out to center to end the inning.
Beschloss went back out for the fourth inning and had a much smoother inning as he retired the side in order including a strikeout of Andrew Basel for the third out.
Needing to get the offense going, Garden City was able to put together a long inning in the fourth. Jack Fanning led off with a walk and he came around to score when Evan Cabral ripped one to left that was misplayed by the left fielder and got the wall. Fanning’s run tied the game up at 3-3, and three batters later, Matt Liberopoulos reached on a fielder’s choice that score Cabral and made it a 4-3 game.
Xander Palmer came on in relief of Beschloss and he did a great job, firing a scoreless fifth and sixth inning to keep the lead in tact.
Liberopoulos came on in relief in the 7th, and he was able to get the job done, inducing a ground out to SS and striking out the final batter to seal the victory.
Garden City will face South Side on Tuesday in the winner’s bracket.
