Sports

Doucett’s blast gives Fish Market win over Marcello

It was an emotional victory.

Southold Fish Market, in one of the best games of the Greenport Men’s Softball League season, rallied time after time to beat its nemesis, Marcello Masonry, 16-14, in eight innings Friday night at the Polo Grounds. Chris Doucett’s two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth gave a jubilant Southold Fish Market team its first win ever against the perennial Greenport powerhouse.

“We have never beaten them before,” said Southold Fish Market’s Warren Bondarchuk. “This was our first real chance. To get this close and finally do it was very emotional for all of us.”

In the beginning, though, it looked like Marcello, with its trademark long ball, was going to run away and coast to another easy win. After Marcello scored four times in the first inning, John Hansen belted a two-run homer in the second, and when Bobby Marcello added a solo homer in the fifth, Southold Fish Market (10-5) trailed, 9-4.

But in the bottom of the fifth, this resilient Southold Fish Market team bounced back in a big way. Doucett launched a two-run homer, Jeff Dinizio followed with a solo blast, and suddenly the score was tied at 9-9. Marcello (11-3) regained the lead with two runs in the sixth. Dinizio answered with a grand slam in Southold Fish Market’s half of the inning to put it back on top, 13-11.

Again, Marcello went deep in the seventh as Bobby Marcello and Brian Anderson smacked home runs for a 14-13 lead. But Southold Fish Market rallied one more time, as Pete Sanchez reached base on a fielder’s choice and eventually scored the tying run on Rodney Spearman’s two-out single.

Dave Angevine, Southold Fish Market’s winning pitcher, retired Marcello in order in the eighth. That set the stage for Doucett’s dramatic game-winning home run.

Doucett, Doroski, Spearman, Brin Klinge and Bondarchuk all had three hits each.

“We have so much respect for” Marcello Masonry, Bondarchuk said. “To finally do it, to beat them, was an emotionally big win for all of us.”

In other games, Claudio’s dropped a pair of games to the top two teams in the league last week, falling to Marcello Masonry, 25-6, on July 12 and then to first-place Skippers, 6-1, on July 14. Marcello broke open a 10-6 game with 15 runs in the final two innings. The game against Skippers was tight until the fifth, when Skippers increased a 3-1 lead to 6-1.

Skippers is in first place with a record of 12-2, followed by Marcello Masonry at 11-3, Southold Fish Market at 10-5, Founders Tavern at 9-6 and Claudio’s at 6-9.