Sports

Baseball: Heath homers for Ospreys in loss to Sag Harbor

North Fork center fielder Tyler Houston making a throw home to complete a double play during Thursday's game against Sag Harbor. (Credit: Daniel De Mato)
North Fork center fielder Tyler Houston making a throw home to complete a double play during the fourth inning of Thursday’s game against Sag Harbor. (Credit: Daniel De Mato)

WHALERS 4, OSPREYS 2

An error here, some missed opportunities there. It can all add up — to defeat.

The North Fork Ospreys found that out on Thursday when they dropped a 4-2 loss to the Sag Harbor Whalers in a Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League game at Jean W. Cochran Park in Peconic. Tristan Chari squeezed a two-run single between first baseman Austin Guzzo and second baseman Kyle Colletta with two outs in the seventh inning to snap a 2-2 tie.

Chari, who came into the game tied with teammate Matt McCann for the fourth-highest batting average in the league at .355, had two runners on base when he stepped into the batter’s box. Ospreys pitcher Anthony Catinella had retired the first two batters that inning on groundouts before hitting Scott Hagan with a pitch and giving up a single to McCann.

The Ospreys (14-12), playing a rare home day game, twice took leads, only to see the Whalers (11-13-1) bounce back twice to even the score.

After Guzzo’s run-scoring single in the first made it 1-0, the Whalers drew level in the second when Kyle Cunningham scored on an errant throw.

Nick Heath, who played for the Ospreys’ 2013 league champion team and recently rejoined the squad, socked a home run to lead off the third. (Heath later made a nice diving catch to rob James Clements of a hit in the eighth.)

But that lead was short-lived as well. The next inning started with singles by Sag Harbor’s Brandon Elmy and Clements, who were then moved on a sacrifice bunt by Cunningham. Elmy came home when a ground ball hit by Nico Maida was booted.

The Ospreys averted further damage that inning, however, when a fly ball by Blaine Griffiths was turned into a double play. Center fielder Tyler Houston made the catch and then fired a throw home to catcher Jake Lieberman, who applied the tag on Clements.

The Whalers were 2-7-1 in their previous 10 games.

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