by Jacob Infald
BALLGAME. Wolfpack 16U are your @liboysofsummer 16U National Champions!! Rodgers with a complete game shutout.
Wolfpack 2 – B1 Ghost 0 pic.twitter.com/WSoaa030nQ— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 17, 2024
Tonight, after a long summer full of intense baseball, a winner was crowned in the most competitive 16U LI Boys of Summer division, as the LI Wolfpack pulled off a huge upset, as they took down the number one seeded B1 Ghost-Okon, winning 2-0 behind great defense, and a complete game shutout from Lucas Rodgers.
Lucas Rodgers was dominant all night long for the Wolfpack. The class of 2025 product out of Calhoun High School, pounded the zone, only walking two batters and did not allow a single Ghost leadoff hitter to reach base. Rodgers credits both himself and his defense, as he knows that he could not have done this without his squad behind him, who did not commit an error.
“My fastball, my location, the slider was working too,” Rodgers said. “My team behind me they were making all the plays.”
The Wolfpack were able to get on the board early. With Gino Milone (St. John The Baptist 2026) on the mound for B1 Ghost, Diomedes Espinal worked a leadoff walk, battling back from down 0-2 in the count after fouling off multiple tough pitches.
Milone would then get sloppy, throwing the ball into right field on an errant pickoff attempt, allowing Espinal to hustle all the way to third on the play. The following batter Xavier Guardado (Freeport 2025) hit a ground ball to Toby Harris (Berkeley Carroll 2026). Harris opted to take the out at first, and Espinal scored on the play to give his team the early 1-0 lead.
After Rodgers fired a scoreless first with the help of great catches in center field by Matthew Lawler (Calhoun 2025), and Guardado in left, the Wolfpack would tack on in the second. After striking out the leadoff batter, Milano would walk Jason Shevlin, and two batters later would walk Anthony Scali (John F. Kennedy 2026). This would bring up the dangerous Espinal with two runners on and two outs, in what would turn out to be a very crucial at-bat.
Espinal would find the barrel, putting the ball past a diving Jaiden Zoller in center field, allowing Shevlin to score. However, B1 Ghost would quickly get the ball back in, getting Espnal out at second before Scali could cross home plate, getting the third out and preserving the score at 2-0 in favor of the Wolfpack.
A rope by Espinal plates another for the Wolfpack. However, a great relay by the Ghost outfield gets him at second, preventing another run from scoring.
Wolfpack 2 – B1 Ghost 0 pic.twitter.com/yeetfFHxNc— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) August 17, 2024
In the bottom of the second B1 Ghost would get their first scoring opportunity when Reno Pagiatakis (Francis Lewis 2026), hit a two-out double to right field. With Luca Facciponti (Calhoun 2026) now at the dish for B1 Ghost, Rodgers would bear down to earn his first strikeout of the night in timely fashion, killing the rally and after two innings of play the Wolfpack led 2-0.
In the third inning B1 Ghost would call upon Catholic League superstar Jalen Josey (Holy Trinity 2026). Josey would provide two very quality innings, striking out three while utilizing a blazing fastball and a nasty breaking ball. These two shutout innings would give his team some energy, but Rodgers and the Wolfpack would have other plans.
B1 Ghost had another opportunity to score in the third, but the defense from the Wolfpack continued to do their thing. After Tommy Augugliaro (Mepham 2026) worked a one-out walk, starting catcher Matt Rackley (Wantagh 2026) stepped to the plate and he found the barrel, sending a screaming line drive to left field that everyone at the park thought would be a hit besides one person, Xavier Guardado. Guardado charged in on the ball, not giving up on the play and would lay out to make an exceptional diving catch for the second out. Rodgers would then retire Harris to end the inning.
Rodgers was prideful in the effort that his teammates gave behind him tonight. He knows that without web-gem plays from Guardado and others, this could have been a different ballgame.
“I’m so proud of them,” Rodgers said. “They were grinding out there, they made great plays to save the game.”
After Josey and Rodgers both fired scoreless frames in the fourth, B1 Ghost made a couple more substitutions, bringing in Marek Williams (Hewlett 2026), to pitch and young up and coming catcher Andrew Marino (Calhoun 2027) to catch and this certainly paid off in the fifth.
With one on and nobody out, Williams struckout Wolfpack catcher Carlos Gutierrez (Copiague 2026), and Marino fired a bullet down to second to catch Guardado attempting to steal for a strike em out throw em out double play to end the inning.
The Wolfpack defense came up huge again in the bottom of the fifth. After a one out walk drawn from pinch hitter Niko Koutsoftas (Wheatley 2026), Rodgers would force Jake Ostertag (Babylon 2027), to hit a chopper to Espinal at second base. Espinal would gobble up the ball and flip it to Scali at second base as Scali would successfully turn the 4-6-3 double play to end the fifth.
After another scoreless frame from Williams, B1 Ghost would have yet another opportunity in the bottom of the sixth, and once again Rodgers and his defense would come through.
With two outs, Kieran Diemer (Bayport-Blue Point 2027) singled to right-center field. This was followed by Rackley getting hit by a pitch to bring up Harris as the go-ahead run. Tensions were now high, both teams knew that this next play could very well determine the outcome of the game. Rodgers took a deep breath, trusted his defense and forced Harris to hit a ground ball to Jake Theodarkakis (Manhasset 2026) to end another threat from B1 Ghost.
Williams would fire another scoreless inning, getting two huge strikeouts with a runner on third base to keep the deficit at only two runs. Williams did not allow a hit over three innings of relief, striking out five and demonstrating one of the nastiest breaking balls in the league. He did everything he could to give his team a chance, but there was no getting past the brick wall that was this Wolfpack defense.
Zoller led off the bottom of the seventh and with two strikes he lifted a ball the other way to shallow left field. This looked like a sure fire base hit to get B1 Ghost going, but out of absolutely nowhere, Guardado comes flying in to make another web-gem catch, robbing Zoller of a hit and putting all of the momentum on his teams’ side.
Rodgers would then force the dangerous Josey to pop up to right field for the second out. The final batter, Andrew Marino put a good swing on the ball, sending a scorching line drive to center field, but Lawler made a terrific running catch and the celebration began, the Wolfpack were the 16U National Division champions!
Rodgers said that his team knew this was going to be a very difficult test for his team. After barely squeaking into the playoffs Rodgers said that his team knew that they could hang with the best of them and that they just needed to do the basics to compete with the powerhouse squad of B1 Ghost.
“We were just going to do our best to shut them down, just put bat on ball,” Rodgers said.
B1 Ghost Okon concludes a great summer of league play, going 15-8-1. While they ultimately came up short, they certainly have loads of talent and many players that will have an impact on the varsity level this year. The Wolfpack finished 11-9, proving that it is not how you start, but how you finish as despite a 3-6 start to league play they emerged victorious as champions.
