Sports

Skippers upends Marcello

They responded all night long.

In a showdown between the top two teams in the Greenport men’s softball league, Skippers beat Marcello Masonry 13-6 on Monday night at the Polo Grounds in Greenport, to move into a tie for first place. Both teams are 10-2.

Early in the game, every time Marcello scored, Skippers answered right back with runs in their half of the inning.

Marcello took a two-run lead in the top of the first inning, before Mark Berry smacked a three-run homer for Skippers in the bottom of the first. Skippers added a pair of runs in the second on an RBI-double by Keith Sweat and a run-scoring single off the bat of Andrew Garcia. John Hansen’s two-run homer in the third helped Marcello trim Skippers’ lead to 5-4. But in the bottom of the third, Skippers tacked on three more runs, on hits by Berry, Matt Verity and Chris Hansen, along with a sacrifice fly by Bob Neese. Marcello, on a Joe Miranda RBI-single in the fourth, made it 8-5.

Skippers took command of the game in the bottom of the fourth, tallying four more runs. John Brush Jr. ripped a two-run double, Berry had an RBI-triple and Verity singled home Berry.

John Brush, Skippers’ winning pitcher, settled in and quieted the Marcello bats the rest of the way. Neese made a couple of superb defensive plays in the outfield to save five runs.

“Those were big defensive plays by Bobby, because Marcello can erupt at any time,” Brush said. “This is not a one-horse race this season. There are four teams that can win the whole thing.”

In other games, Southold Fish Market split a pair of games, pounding Pool King 18-2 on June 29, then falling to Marcello Masonry 9-0 on June 30.

In the lopsided win over Pool King, Southold Fish Market had their big bats booming, as Jordan Doroski hit a solo home run in the second inning, Chris Doucett smacked a two-run homer in the sixth, and Jeff Dinizio ended the game with a walk-off mercy rule three-run blast in the top of the seventh. Doroski and Dave Angevine both had four hits, while Doucett finished with a trio of hits.

But the Southold Fish Market (8-4) bats fell silent the next night against Marcello’s winning pitcher John Hansen. Bobby Marcello’s three-run homer in the second ignited his team’s victory.

“We just couldn’t hit John at all,” Southold Fish Market’s Warren Bondarchuk said. “John has the high arc and we are a hit-or-miss kind of team. We either score 15 runs or none. Marcello is a tough team. You’ve got to play your best to beat them.”

Red-hot Claudio’s, after their stunning 7-6 win over Founders Tavern (7-5) on June 28, have 11 days off before they take on Southold Fish Market tomorrow night. Claudio’s (4-7) was scheduled to play the now defunct Pete’s Boys on Monday night. The long layoff concerns Claudio’s manager Matt Vescovi.

“This layoff is huge for us,” he said. “We are at a big-time disadvantage. We were on a hot streak. Our team is so young and we were rallying. We will try and hold a couple of practices this week, but it is not the same. With this much time off, it is tough.”

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