Matt Milne
Gagliano Sends Connetquot Into the Suffolk County Championship
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana In what appeared to be a smooth 4-1 win in a monumental game, Smithtown East rallied off Connetquot starter John Hengge with two outs in the seventh inning on RBI singles by Matt DiPietro and Matt Milne to tie the game at 4.Yesterday’s starter, Travis Bruinsma, came on to record the final out of the seventh and allow the Thunderbirds bats to go to work.That’s exactly what they did. Hot-hitting Aaron Gagliano lined a one out single up the middle with runners on first and second off yesterday’s winning pitcher, Greg Maitles, to send the T-Birds into a frenzy.It was also Bruinsma’s 10th win of the season–a very rare feat for high school pitchers.They won the best-of-three semifinals and will now take on Ward Melville on Saturday in the...
Greg Maitles, Smithtown East Force Deciding Game Three With 6-4 Win over Connetquot
Maitles striking out White to end the game. With Smithtown East‘s lead dwindling in the fourth inning, Head Coach Ken Klee called on senior Greg Maitles to preserve the lead. He went on to pitch the rest of the game, not allowing a run while striking out four to preserve Smithtown East’s 6-4 win to force a deciding third game in the semifinals. “It went exactly as planned,” said Maitles. “I couldn’t have planned it any better,” he added. The big lefty relied on a heavy dosage of curves and change ups to keep the potent bats of No. 1 Connetquot off balance from the fourth inning on. “I knew that a lot of them were dead-red hitters and I wanted to keep them off balance to get some groundballs,” Maitles said. With the score tied 2-2 in the...
