by Jacob Infald
(Photo: Adam Rubin/Commack School District)
Kay does it again! 11 strikeouts on the day including striking out the side in the 7th. pic.twitter.com/HM7EGjJlrC
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 2, 2024
For the third time in four seasons and for the second consecutive one, the Commack Cougars are the Class AAA Long Island baseball champions. On the evening of June 1st at Middle Country Athletic Complex, the Cougars were once again led by their ace, Stony Brook-commit Evan Kay and they defeated the Farmingdale Dalers, 2-1.
Kay was dominant out on the mound allowing only one unearned one in a seven inning complete game shutout. He struckout 11 batters and walked none. Kay attacked Dale hitters early in the count with a sharp slider, a nasty changeup and a powerful fastball. Kay said tonight was one of those nights where everything just felt right out on the mound.
“The slider was falling off the table the entire night,” said Kay. “The changeup was able to get some punchouts…the last three innings just blowing fastballs by people, outside, inside, up, just worked all day.”
On the other side, uncommitted Jordan Welch took the mound for Farmingdale. Welch commanded the zone with a blazing fastball all night long and is one of the top uncommitted players in his class.
Kay was able to get some much needed run support early from offense. After Kay struck out the side to start the game, middle school phenom catcher Robbie Mascia got the action going for Commack with a base hit to left. The following batter, Saint Thomas Aquinas commit, Ryan Krzemienski, was able to draw a walk and the Cougars were poised for a big inning.
However, Welch was able to force Kay to hit a ground ball to shortstop John Franco. He stepped on second and turned the double play himself. However, Welch did not escape the inning without some damage. The following hitter, Dean Vincent, hit a ball right back up the middle, scoring Mascia from third and after one inning of play Commack led 1-0.
After a quick second inning from both pitchers, the Dalers looked to get on the board in the third. Left fielder Patrick Sebber led off the inning for the Dalers. Sebber looked to attack Kay early and did just that and on the first pitch hit a liner down the third base line. The ball looked to be trouble off the bat, but Max Horowitz layed out and made a great diving catch for the first out of the inning. This play ultimately saved at least one run as the following two Daler hitters, Franco and uncommitted third baseman Ive Mills both recorded base hits before being left stranded on base.
Kay credits the play from Horowitz along with many other big defensive plays for the Cougars as a big reason for the victory. Kay said that the team knows that they will not be able to out slug teams like past Commack championship teams might have been able to. He says this season, the squad adopted a defensive focused mentality.
“…We switched to playing the best defense possible and we showed it out there tonight,” Kay said. “It was money out there.”
The score remained 1-0 for the following few innings. It felt that whichever team was able to push the next run across the plate would gain complete control and momentum of the game. Commack head coach Matt Salmon understood this and sent Matt Shovelson to the plate as a pinch hitter for Anthony Antorino to start the bottom half of the fifth.
The move by Salmon paid off as Shovelson led the inning off with a single to right field. This got the Cougar dugout fired up, as they began to smell blood in the water. The following batter, uncommitted Michael Heller laid down a perfect bunt down the first base line. Welch waited as long as possible for the ball to go foul, before picking it up and firing it to first to retire Heller, Heller did his job though, as his bunt was successful in sacrificing Shovelson to second.
Have a day Robbie Mascia! The middle school phenom knocks in Shovelson with an RBI single up the middle. After five innings of play Commack leads 2-0. pic.twitter.com/olsKJ8jCFC
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 1, 2024
Now, the Cougars had a running in scoring position for the top of the batting order. Mascia, despite going down 0-2 in the count, demonstrated tremendous poise and hit a line drive to center field, bringing Shovelson home and after five innings of baseball the Cougars led 2-0.
The Dalers looked for one final rally in the sixth as they sent their top of the order up. Leadoff center fielder, James Sebber hit a bloop popup in front of the plate. Mascia could not come up with the catch, and compounded the mistake with a throwing error to first allowing Sebber to advance to second. Sebber was then able to advance to third as uncommitted second baseman Joe Tagliavia hit a groundout to shortstop.
Time seemed to stop as Welch stepped up to the plate as the tying run. The crowd knew that Welch and Kay were two of the best players on the field and it was only fitting that they now faced off in such a pivotal moment. Kay bore down, forcing Welch to hit a high flyout to right field. This drove in Sebber to get the Dalers on the board, but they still trailed 2-1.
After Welch retired the side in order, Kay was ready to start the celebration. He started the game by striking out the side in order, and he ended it no differently, overpowering the Dales with an immaculate inning, striking out the side on only nine pitches and for the second season in a row, Kay threw a complete game shutout to lead his team to a Long Island championship.
Kay said the job is not done yet. He wants revenge against the reigning state champions from Ketcham High School, who advanced again this year.
“We’re not done yet,” Kay said. “There’s a team up there we owe some revenge to and we want to get there.”
The Cougars will travel up to Binghamton for the Class AAA NYSPHSAA championship semifinals on Friday, June 7th.
