Photo Credit: Olivia Daddona

It had been 12 years since the North Fork Ospreys had last appeared in an HCBL Championship Series. When the North Fork Ospreys won their second HCBL title in 2013, they had appeared in four of the first five HCBL Championship Series after the HCBL’s expansion to five teams in 2009.

Since then, they appeared seven times in the HCBL playoffs and had lost their last 10 postseason games before this season, with their most recent postseason win having been in Game 1 of the 2015 HCBL Semifinals against Westhampton. The Ospreys came into their 2025 postseason having a record of 1-12 since winning their last HCBL title.

On Saturday, North Fork clinched its return to the HCBL Championship Series with a 14-1 win over the Sag Harbor Whalers in Game 2 of the HCBL Semifinals, having waited a day to resume from Friday’s action after play was suspended in the middle of the second inning due to rain.

North Fork had a 5-0 lead before play was stopped on Friday by the rain, with two-run hits from Nick Pratt (UMBC) and Trevor Dosenbach (Richmond), along with an RBI single by Thomas Matuszewski (Jefferson).

North Fork would continue where they left off when play resumed, as the Ospreys scored three runs in the top of the fourth, highlighted by a two-run double from Matuszewski that made the score 8-0 in favor of the Ospreys.

Pete DeMaio, who came on to pitch the second inning in relief of his teammate at Dominican, AJ Mitchell, ran into trouble when he allowed a run in the bottom of the fourth when Jake Walman (Seton Hall) drove in a run on a fielder’s choice. DeMaio would get out of the inning, only allowing the one run.

North Fork kept the offense going in the seventh with an RBI single from James Fagnant (Richmond) and a sacrifice fly from Matuszewski for his fourth RBI of the game.

The Ospreys would add four more runs in the top of the ninth. After Fagnant singled in a run with the bases loaded to make the score 11-1, Matuszewski came up and ripped a bases-clearing double that scored all three runs. Matuszewski finished Game 2 going 3-for-5 with seven RBI, setting a new HCBL postseason single-game record, and including regular season, is the eighth player to have seven or more RBI in an HCBL game.

Matt Guido (Lycoming), who came on to pitch in relief of DeMaio in the seventh, held the Whalers in check to advance the Ospreys to their first HCBL Championship Series since 2013.

Despite allowing eight walks to Sag Harbor batters, DeMaio only allowed one run on four hits as he earned the victory for North Fork.

The Ospreys will play the South Shore Clippers in Game 1 of the 2025 HCBL Championship Series on Monday, July 28th at 7 PM in Peconic at Cochran Park.

HCBL Players With Seven or more RBI in a Game

8 - Lucas Pierce (Rhode Island College/Sag Harbor), vs. North Fork, June 25, 2024

7 - Peter Greskoff (Brown/Riverhead), vs. Long Island (Mustangs), June 27, 2009

7 - Mitchell McGeein (Eastern Michigan/Southampton), vs. Shelter Island, July 7, 2014

7 - Jarred Greene (UC Santa Barbara/Riverhead), vs. North Fork, July 5, 2019

7 - Mason Wolf (Monmouth/Westhampton), vs. North Fork, July 8, 2022

7 - Jack Halloran (Emory/Westhampton), vs. Riverhead, July 10, 2022

7 - Ryan Kiendle (St. John’s/South Shore), vs. Sag Harbor, July 19, 2025

7 - Thomas Matuszewski (Jefferson/North Fork), vs. Sag Harbor, July 25-26, 2025*

* Postseason Game