Hunter Colagrande struck out 11 in a complete game shutout outdueling one of the top pitchers on Long Island in a 2-0 victory for Kings Park pic.twitter.com/JQL1JM7SNs
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 17, 2024
You could not have asked for a better pitching match up in a playoff game.
Arguably the top pitchers in the 2024 class and 2025 class squared off against each other in a Class A playoff game between Kings Park and Miller Place.
It was Hunter Colagrande, one year older than Nick Frusco, who came out on top in this one as he fired a 4-hit, CG shutout with 11 strikeouts in a 2-0 victory that took just over 90 minutes to complete in front of his hometown crowd on a Friday evening.
Offense was always going to be at a premium between these two Division-I arms. Scouts were lined up behind home plate with their radar guns on every pitch. Frusco, a southpaw, topped at 93 MPH while Colagrande, a righty, was in the low 90s.
In the first inning, it was a quick 1-2-3 inning for Colagrande, and his offense threatened in the home half of the first against Frusco. A leadoff walk by Mitchell Landau and a single by Brandon Hauk put runners on the corners with 0 out. A pop out, strikeout and caught stealing ended the jam without a run, though.
In the second inning, Nick Frusco led off with a single and was sacrificed to second base to get into scoring position. Colagrande did not blink, however, getting a strikeout, before issuing a walk and ending the jam on a foul pop up that he made a nice sprinting catch on.
The first run came across in unique fashion.
In the home half of the third, Mikey Cooper drew a one-out walk and moved to second on another walk. After a line out to shortstop, Cooper advanced to third on a passed ball and on a 1-2 count, he attempted a straight steal of home. It worked out as the pitch went to the backstop to give the hometown 9 a 1-0 lead. It was a significant moment considering Colagrande entered the game with a 0.44 ERA and he wasn’t appearing to be in the mood to give up any runs today either.
He did get into some trouble in the fourth inning.
After a ground out to start the inning, Frusco got to him for his second hit of the day and he hit Liam Martin on the hand to put a runner in scoring position. He struck out the next two batters for the second and third outs to thwart the rally.
Once again, Miller Place had a chance in the fifth inning when the first two batters reached via infield singles to give themselves a great chance to tie the ballgame. Colagrande did what he does best, and that’s bear down with two strikeouts and a pop out to preserve the 1-0 lead.
The Kingsmen were able to add to their lead in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by leadoff batter, Mitchell Landau to score Mikey Cooper to make it a 2-0 game.
While Miller Place had their chances early on, that was not the case later as Colagrande breezed through the sixth and seventh innings with 5 strikeouts to finish off the CG shutout.
With the victory, Kings Park improves to 19-2 overall on the season. They will face Bayport-Blue Point on Sunday, after they defeated Sayville on Friday.
