Sports

Baseball: Ospreys earn No. 2 seed in Hamptons division playoffs

GARRET MEADE FILE PHOTO | North Fork’s Eric Romano, connecting on a pitch from Center Moriches’ Jason Schilling, enjoyed a three-hit game.

If the Shelter Island Bucks baseball team was embarrassed by a 12-run loss to last place Sag Harbor Thursday night, they shook it off on Friday by handing the North Fork Ospreys a 10-5 loss in Southold.

The win propels the Bucks (23-17) back into first place at the conclusion of regular season play in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League.

The Ospreys are a half-game back at 22-17, but even if they win their finale Saturday night, Shelter Island owns the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seedin the playoffs.

North Fork will be the No. 2 seed.

The Southampton Breakers, Riverhead Tomcats and Center Moriches Battlecats are fighting it out for the final two playoff spots.

The Bucks will face whomever finishes fourth.

The Ospreys scored two runs in the first inning to lead off the game Friday, but the Bucks came back with two runs of their own in the top of the second inning. In the third inning, the Bucks scored two more runs, while the Ospreys scored one.

It was in the sixth inning that the Bucks sent four runners past home plate to take the lead for good. In the ninth, Shelter Island came back with another two runs while the Ospreys could eke out only one final run.

The playoffs were originally scheduled to start Saturday night with the first place team meeting the fourth place team in a best-of-three series, while the second and third place teams face off in their own series. But postponed games pushed the playoffs back to next week, according to a message on the league site.

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