by Andrew Barbieri
FINAL/8: LI Storm 6, B1000 1.
A wild extra inning game ends in the Storm running away with it in the end. pic.twitter.com/W1erUUbLal— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 2, 2023
A pitcher’s duel at Hofstra University in the Boys of Summer 15u American Division turned into an offensive surge for the LI Storm in their 6-1 victory on Tuesday night.
Ben Feil for the Seminoles and Jake Ragusa for the Storm were dominant for 7 innings in the game. Feil, a left-handed pitcher, executed 2 pickoffs to perfection to get runners off the bases and mixed in 7 punch outs to keep the Storm’s offense at bay through the first 7 frames. On the other side, Ragusa also tossed 7 shutout innings, during the first 6 innings, no Seminole had reached second base. Ragusa induced 2 double plays and struck out 6.
When the Seminoles had a runner reach third in the 7th, they came awfully close to walking off the game. Nolan Hosey led off the inning with a single and a steal of second. Gavin McMahon reached on a fielders’ choice and Hosey went to third. Ragusa struck out David Gregory swinging to get an out, then Sean Culliman skied a ball to left field and Hosey looked to tag. Liam Conlon for the Storm made the catch and fired the ball home to get Hosey at the plate and force extras on a 7-2 double play.
Shea Burns, Jake Ragusa, and Liam Conlon are the Muddy Locker Players of the Game for the LI Storm. pic.twitter.com/4rPcWsLpSp
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 2, 2023
Heading into the 8th with tons of momentum the Storm broke the bats out to end the scoreless tie. McMahon relieved Feil and immediately faced the bases loaded and no out after the first 3 Storm hitters got aboard in the inning. Mike Solomon hit a sacrifice fly to bring home the first run for either side in the game. Danny Tyrrel hit his 3rd single of the evening to load the bases again. Shea Burns then came up to the plate and with a full count, stung the payoff pitch into the left center field gap to clear the bases and ended up on third with a triple. Ultimately, LI Storm would score 6 runs and would look to shut the door on a game they nearly lost in the previous inning. Jack Pawlowski to the mound in relief and got a 1-2-3 double play and a pop out to second after the Seminoles got a run back, putting the finishing touches on a 6-1 Storm win.
With the victory, LI Storm are 10-9-1 through 20 games in the Boys of Summer season, B1000 Seminoles-Barbone Gold with the loss fall to 8-12.
