Photo Credit: Christine Heeren/Artist Lake Media

By Matt Weinstein/Axcess Baseball

The Riverhead Tomcats came away with a win and a tie in Sunday’s doubleheader against the Long Island Road Warriors in two seven inning games. With seven games remaining for both teams in the 2019 HCBL season, the Tomcats are 23-8-2 in first place, and the Road Warriors are 10-21-2 in last place.

GAME 1

Riverhead defeated Long Island 7-6 in game one, on the road at Bellport High School. 

Long Island’s Anthony Jacabacci of the University of Bridgeport got the start on the mound and fired three innings, giving up five runs on three hits with four walks. Jacabacci gave up a leadoff single to UMass Lowell’s Robert Gallagher, who then stole second. Jacabacci walked the next two batters and with the bases loaded and nobody out, Penn catcher Andrew Hernandez grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, scoring Gallagher for the first run of the game. 

Connor Morrisroe of Albany got the nod for Riverhead. He threw two and two thirds giving up three runs on five hits. He gave up a leadoff ground rule double to Jake Guercio (Fordham) but worked around it to keep Long Island off the board in the first. It wasn’t until the bottom of the second that the Road Warriors would tie the game. Shortstop David Soto (Rutgers) singled and stole second, then advanced on a Jack Ryan (Adelphi) single. Iona outfielder Dan Palermo grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Soto tying the game at one after two innings. 

Jacabacci walked two Riverhead batters in the third before giving up a two out, two run single to Andrew Hernandez to give Riverhead a 3-1 lead. In the bottom of the third, Long Island answered back with two runs of their own. Queens College outfielder Eric Roubal walked, followed by Suffolk outfielder Jake Ford’s single. Roubal and Ford swiped third and second respectively leading to Rockland’s Miles Kelly’s sac fly, scoring Roubal. Later in the inning, Palermo singled in Ford with two outs to tie the game, ending Morrisroe’s time on the mound. Alex Doskoez of NYIT came to the mound and was able to finish the inning with the game still tied at three.

UC Santa Barbara’s Jarred Greene was hit by a pitch to begin the fourth inning for Riverhead. He stole second, and then scored on Bryce Wallace’s (Louisiana Tech) single. That ended the game for Jacabacci, and he was relieved by Cortland’s Mike Hennessy. After striking out his first batter, Hennessy gave up a two run homer to left field to Brian Morrell of Notre Dame, pushing the Riverhead lead to 6-3 in the fourth. Hennessy settled down and retired two of the next three batters to get out of the inning. 

Alex Doskoez fared very well in the middle innings. He retired seven straight batters before the bottom of the sixth. He gave up two straight singles to Palermo and Daytona State’s Chad Pike. Doskoez settled down and retired the next two batters before Eric Roubal took the HCBL home run lead to himself, with a three run blast, his sixth of the year, tying the game at six in the bottom of the sixth. NYIT’s Joseph Murphy came on to relieve Doskoez and he struck out his first batter to end the sixth. 

Jared Restmeyer (St Rose) who had pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth for Long Island, came back on for the seventh inning. After recording the first out of the inning, he gave up a single to Andrew Hernandez, and a double to Louis Antos (Queens) before he was taken out. With one out, runners on second and third, Penn’s Drake Eggleston came to the mound. The first batter he faced, Jarred Greene, flew out to deep right field, scoring Hernandez and giving Riverhead the 7-6 lead. Eggleston retired the next batter on a ground ball, ending the inning. 

Joe Murphy came back to the mound, up one run in the bottom of the seventh. He struck out his first batter, but walked Soto and Jack Ryan before he was taken out of the game. Umass Lowell’s Josh Becker came to the mound looking for the two out save. With the tying run on second, and winning run on first and one out, Becker recorded a strikeout and a ground ball to first to pick up the save, with the 7-6 Riverhead victory. Joe Murphy got the win, and Jared Restmeyer received the loss in game one. 

GAME 2

Fairdield’s Tristan Amone got the start for Long Island in game two. He gave up two runs on six hits, while striking out five in five innings of work. In the top of the first, the only damage was a two out single for Andrew Hernandez. 

Coletan Reitan of Wesleyan toed the rubber to begin the bottom half of the first. He finished six innings giving up three runs on six hits, punching out seven. He gave up a leadoff single to Jake Guercio, but he was erased on a double play, and Reitan was able to pitch to the minimum in the bottom of the first. 

Both starters gave up just one more hit each in the second, before things got going in the third. Riverhead Catcher Dan Fallacaro (Sacred Heart) lead off the top of the third with a single to left, followed by a walk to Rob Gallagher. After Amone struckout Thomas Papadopoulos (St. Johns), Hernandez singled for the second time in as many at bats to load the bases with one out. Louis Antos singled in Fallacaro, before Bryce Wallace (St. Mary’s (CA) walked with the bases loaded to give Riverhead a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the third inning.

Bridgeport’s Joey Grillo singled to right to begin the bottom of the third for Long Island. The next batter, Chad Pike, was hit by a pitch. Guercio advanced the runner with a ground ball to the right side before Molloy’s Jacob McCarthy singled in both runs to tie the game. He scored three batters later on Soto’s double to left field, giving Long Island a 3-2 lead after three innings in game two.

Both starting pitchers fired scoreless fourth and fifth innings, and Long Island took their 3-2 lead into the top of the sixth. Andrew Marra of William and Mary relieved Tristan Amone to begin the sixth inning for the Road Warriors. After setting down his first batter, Marra gave up a solo home run to Markell Graham of East Tennessee State, tying the game at three. Marra worked around a Noah Centeno (Sacred Heart) pinch hit single to exit the top of the sixth with the game tied. 

Coleton Reitan finished his outing firing a hitless sixth inning, sending the game into the final inning of regulation, tied at three. 

Long Island sent Dylan Hughes of Queens College to the mound in the top of the seventh. Hughes plunked the first two batters he faced, Hernandez and Antos. Jared Greene followed it up with a single to right field, but defensive replacement Dan Palermo fired a strike to home plate to retire Hernandez, keeping the game tied. Hughes recorded a strikeout, and induced a pop fly to shortstop to end the seventh tied at three. 

Riverhead sent LIU’s Nick DeSalvo to the mound in the seventh. DeSalvo fired a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh, sending the game into extra innings. Hamptons League rules allow one extra inning before a tie game is called. 

Dylan Hughes, back for his second inning, got two quick outs before Rob Gallagher singled. Gallagher, the HCBL steals leader at 30 was picked off at first base by Hughes to end the inning. 

Tomcat reliever DeSalvo struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth, ending the game in a 3-3 tie. 

Riverhead, 23-8-2, is now officially one and a half games ahead of the Westhampton Aviators for first place with seven games left in the regular season. The Road Warriors, 10-21-2, are two full games behind the North Fork Ospreys for the fifth seed, which would play the fourth seed in the wild card game on July 24th. Long Island will host the Aviators tomorrow night, July 15th, at 5pm. The Riverhead Tomcats will also be playing at 5pm, hosting the North Fork Ospreys.