by Andrew Barbieri
Wyatt Benson (Orange Coast College) walks it off for the Whalers! They take game 1 over North Fork 3-2. Game 2 will start at 4:25. pic.twitter.com/z1MQLQFoHa
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 28, 2023
After a successful 2-day break for the HCBL, in which the league sent some of their best players and went 2-0 in contests down at the NACSB Prospect Games in Virginia, the Sag Harbor Whalers continued where they left off on Sunday by sweeping the North Fork Ospreys in two 7-inning games on Wednesday by the scores of 3-2 and 5-3.
Game one began with a couple of southpaws getting starts on the mound for both sides. Max Hart, the big 6-foot 8-inch Williams College lefty got the start for the Whalers and the Ospreys sent Matt Guido, of Lycoming College to the bump. After Hart pitched a solid 1st, his offense backed him up by getting to work early on Guido. TJ Werner walked with 1 out, Tucker Genovesi found the left centerfield gap for extra bases and Werner was held at third. Josh Parks came through to score Werner and Genovesi with a liner up the middle to make it 2-0 Sag Harbor.
The middle innings moved along quickly as Guido and Hart would for the most part, cruise by opposing batters with Guido utilizing his two-seamer, and Hart using his velocity to keep the score the same up until the 6th inning when the Ospreys’ bats came to life.
In the 9 spot of the order, Jack Filippi reached on an E3 to turn the lineup back to the top with nobody out. With it being the 3rd time around the order, Lukas Egenhauser, Ty Acker, and Jackson Curtis all got aboard with singles with Curtis’ having an RBI attached to his to make it a 1 run game. At that point Hart’s day was done and Sag Harbor handed the ball to Patrick Teehan in an effort to minimize the damage. Teehan would only allow a sacrifice fly to Brady Karp. While the game was now tied, things could have gotten more out of hand for the Whaler than giving up 2 runs.
Taer Rodriguez would enter in relief for North Fork and kept the game tied heading into the 7th. Teehan would toss a scoreless top of the 7th and gives his hitters a chance to walk it off and they would do just that. Gabe Caso led off with a double then advanced on a pitch that reached the backstop and he was 90 feet away from giving the Whalers a victory. Following an Alex Brinkman walk, Wyatt Benson hit a ball right back up the middle, Caso stepped on home plate, and game 1 went to Sag Harbor.
The Muddy Locker Player of the Game is Wyatt Benson. He delivered in game 1 with a walk off single to get the Whalers the win in game 1. pic.twitter.com/Y68o0uZJOQ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 28, 2023
Game 2
Final: Sag Harbor Whalers 5, North Fork Ospreys 3.
The Whalers added an insurance in the 5th then got great work out of the pen from Cole Forcellina to go 2-0 on the day. pic.twitter.com/LaMtRPT9wP— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 28, 2023
In game 2 Garrett Bolwell would receive some early run support just like Hart got after getting some support first in the field from his defense. Aidan Okeefe and Jackson Curtis would both get thrown out on plays at the plate. Okeefe tried to score after an E5 and Curtis ended the inning tagged out at home after a throw on a line from Genovesi in center. Turner Bubeck got the start for the Ospreys and quickly struck out 2 Whaler batters but had to deal with leadoff man Mylo Suarez in scoring position. Sag Harbor would get an RBI single from Mark Henshon who has started his 2023 Hamptons League campaign on fire hitting a remarkable .480 so far with 10 RBIs in 25 at bats. A batter later, he raced all the way from first to home as Ethan Sarmiento one hopped the right centerfield wall with a double to give the Whalers a 2-0 lead once again after 1 inning of play.
TJ Werner in the 2nd extended the lead to 3-0 with a double of his own that scored Olivia Pichardo who was the first female appear in a Division-I baseball game while apart with Brown University back in the spring.
In the 3rd the Whalers scratched across another run this time via a Daniel Laderman single to plate Caso.
All North Fork’s 3 runs came in the 4th while trying to climb back from a deficit. Jackson Curtis launched a solo shot to lead off the inning and after Brady Karp reached with a single, Jackson Militello hit a ball into the opposite field that was a no doubt, 2 run blast to make it a 1 run game in the blink of an eye.
Sag Harbor felt the pressure being put on and picked up an insurance run from another RBI two bagger this time from Suarez to give them a 5-3 advantage.
Cole Forcellina was lights out in relief for the Whalers to keep the Ospreys at bay the rest of the way. Entering the game, Forcellina pitched 5 innings over 3 appearances and gave up 4 earned runs to give him a 7.20 ERA. On this day though he only had to face 10 batters over 3 innings. He retired the Ospreys in order in the 5th and 6th, the only traffic on the bases he had to deal with came in the 7th when Brady Malpass reached on an E5. That occurred with 1 out in the final frame, 2 batters later, Forcellina secured the save after he induced a couple of flyouts to cap off a 5-3 game 2 win for Sag Harbor.
With a pair of wins, the defending champion Whalers are now sitting at 7-4, they’re also winners of 3 straight and in sole possession of 1st place in the league. The Ospreys fall to 5-7, and now sit in a tie for 3rd place with Southampton. North Fork has also dropped 3 in a row, which spans back to Sunday when they lost to Shelter Island 6-2.
