Final: Smithtown East 5, Hills East 0
WP: James Lanflisi (6.2 innings relief, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 Ks)Ciminiello: 1-3, 3B, 3 RBIs
Smithtown East clinches postseason berth pic.twitter.com/3g30UNRryz
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 7, 2024
Going into the game, James Lanfisi figured he would watch from the dugout as staff ace Ben Kennedy took the mound looking to send his team to the playoffs.
One batter in, Lanfisi found himself warming up to come in.
Impressively, he was able to not only get himself ready to go on a moment’s notice, he was absolutely brilliant as he fired 6.2 shutout innings with 9 strikeouts in a 5-0 victory over Hills East to clinch a playoff berth for the Bulls.
Lanfisi, who is committed to Utica, was very efficient needing just 85 pitches to dice through a talented Hills East lineup. He allowed just one walk and four hits. The only jam he really ran into was in the seventh inning when a dropped pop out followed by a single by 8th grader Patrick Dalien put runners at first and second with nobody out. He did exactly what he needed to do, inducing a 6-6-3 DP to thwart the rally.
Speaking after the game, Lanfisi said, “I didn’t really know what to expect but you just have to come in and do what you have to do and make sure we can clinch the playoffs and keep playing the rest of the season.”
His offense wasted zero time getting on the board against Hills East starter Nate Greene. Andrew Carbonara hit a leadoff single, Bobby Eck hit a double down the left field line and Luke Ciminiello scored them both with a two-run triple to make it 2-0. He scored on a ground ball to third that was misplayed by the third baseman.
Bottom 1: Single by Andrew Carbonara, double by Bobby Eck and now a 2-R triple by Luke Ciminiello
Smithtown East 2, Hills East 0 pic.twitter.com/CtxPP8lVWh
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 7, 2024
With the way Lanfisi was throwing, that was plenty of run support.
Jash Mody came on in relief for Hills East, and he was very effective. The right-hander fired 4.1 innings of relief, allowing no hits, one run and yielding just one walk with two strikeouts. This was important as the T-Birds are still looking to clinch a playoff spot and they will have a rested bullpen for the final two games of the series.
Overall, there was not a ton of offense in this game as the two teams combined for 9 hits and the game took just 2 hours and that was with the injury timeout which required Lanfisi to warm up from scratch.
After a rebuilding year in 2023, Smithtown East is back in the playoffs, as they were in 2022 when they captured the Conference Championship before losing to Suffolk in the Class AA Finals.
