by John Sullivan
Constantine Cheung lets us know what was working for him out there today pic.twitter.com/6P6GTXKsKQ
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 26, 2024
Dodgers Nation and the Cardinals faced off in a Boys of Summer game at Mitchell Field on Wednesday night that would see two great starting pitchers take the mound. Dodgers Nation sent Constantine Cheung to the mound, who is a hard throwing right hander with a nasty breaking ball. For the Cardinals, Marco Visintainer, a strike thrower who hits spots and has good off speed, got the start.
Visintainer started things off with a quick top of the first. He got the lead off batter to line out and after walking the next batter, he got out of the inning scoreless with two straight groundouts. In the bottom of the first, the Cardinals threatened against Cheung. After Thomas Priolo grounded out to start the inning, Gavin Karcic and Joseph Cristofari hit back to back singles and executed a double steal to make it second and third with 1 out. But, Cheung stayed tough on the mound and got the next batter swinging on a high fastball and froze the batter after that on a nasty curveball to escape the jam and keep the game scoreless heading into the second.
The second inning was stress free for both pitchers, as Visintainer induced two groundouts and a fly out for a 1,2,3 inning, and Cheung induced two groundouts and a strikeout for a 1,2,3 inning of his own. On the third, Visintainer kept rolling. He forced a flyout on the lead off hitter in the inning. The next batter, Matt Monzillo, hit a single up the middle, but this didn’t faze Visintainer, as he forced fellow pitcher, Constantine Cheung to roll over into a double play to end the inning. In the bottom of the third, Cheung got a groundout on the first batter, but walked the second batter. After his walk, Cheung was pulled from the game. Despite only throwing 2 and a thirda, Cheung had a great overall outing on the mound, notching three strikeouts and allowing no runs. Justin Cook came in relief for Cheung and he got his job done in the third, as he induced a popup and a groundout to keep the game scoreless.
In the fourth inning, the bats finally got going for both teams. Louis Constanzo started things off with a walk for Dodgers Nation, but Visintainer struckout the next batter. Joe Ambrosio and Charlie Nella responded with two singles to load the bases with one out. Then, Dan Goodis worked a great at bat for a walk to bring across the first run of the game. This brought up William Scott, who came through in a big way for his team by smoking a line drive over the left fielder’s head for a bases clearing double. Vince Romano followed this up with a hard line drive into right field that was caught and unfortunately for Dodgers Nation Scott ran on contact and got doubled up to end the inning. In the bottom of the fourth, Gavin Karcic reached base on an E2 to start things off. Joseph Cristofari then hit a single into right field that went through the right fielder’s legs and allowed for Karcic to score. After Thomas Schoch grounded out and moved Cristofari to third, Jonathan Versocki did a good job of putting a ball in play by grounding out to short to score Cristofari and make it a 4-2 ballgame.
In the top of the fifth, Visintainer was back to his scoreless ways, as he worked around a lead off walk and 1 out walk by inducing three groundouts in the inning. William Scott took over in relief in the bottom of the fifth for Dodgers Nation and started off great with a strikeout. But, he walked the next three batters and was taken out for Charlie Nella. Nella hit the first batter he faced to make it a 4-3 game with the bases loaded. Luckily for Dodgers Nation, he spelled down after this and got Gavin Karcic to flyout for the second out and Joseph Cristofari to groundout for a huge third out.
Mid 6: Depsite only having two hits in the inning, Dodgers Nation scores 4 to make it 8-3. Two of the runs were scored on this sac fly by Dan Goodis and an E6 that was hit by William Scott pic.twitter.com/h0NS0zvf4K
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 26, 2024
In the top of the sixth, Dodgers Nation desperately needed to add some insurance runs, and that’s exactly what they did. Louis Costanza singled, Phoenix Forbes walked, and Joe Ambrosio singled to load the bases with no outs. Charlie Nella then worked a walk to make it 5-3 and Dan Goodis followed this with a deep sac fly to make it 6-3. Joe Ambrosio then scored a wild pitch and William Scott hit a ground ball to shortstop that was thrown away and allowed Nella to score. Dodgers Nation brought an 8-3 lead into the bottom half of the last inning.
Despite being down 5 with only three outs to go, the Cardinals refused to give up. Jonathan Versocki reached base on a fielder’s choice and Christian Ferrandina was hit by a pitch to make it first and second with one out. Luke Benzinger then ripped a double into left field to cut the lead to 8-4. Blake Ashenberg then hit a chopper to third, but Ferranida was thrown out at home on the play for the second out. Down to their final out, Ryan Lebowitz came up with a big two strike single the other way to extend the game and make it 8-5. Chris Zilinski then also extended the game with a walk. Struggling to get the last out, Dodgers Nation brought in Ryan Valente, who’s first pitch was a wild pitch that made it 8-6 and moved the tying run to second base. But, Valente settled down and threw three straight strikes to end it and win it 8-6 for Dodgers Nation.
Final: Ryan Valente comes in and gets the backwards K to win it for Dodgers Nation! 8-6 final pic.twitter.com/RCqV8UMGIE
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 26, 2024
Both teams showed a ton of grit and talent in the game. But, what sticks out most is the great performances from both team’s starting pitchers. Marcos Visintainer had a gutsy outing, going 5 innings with 4 earned runs, and 3 hits given up. Constantine Cheung went 2 and a third with no runs given up, two hits surrendered, and three strikeouts, as well as a victory for his team. After the game, Cheung spoke to us and gave credit to his off speed for his great outing. Expect to see Cheung a lot as a pitcher to watch in the near future.
