Baseball: Ospreys’ comeback bid falls short
A desperate comeback attempt by the North Fork Ospreys fell short Friday night when they dropped the second and decisive game of their Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League semifinal series to the Long Island Road Warriors, 10-9.
Long Island held a 7-2 lead through three innings at Jean Cochran Park in Peconic before the Ospreys closed the gap, pulling to within 8-7 in the eighth and 10-9 in the ninth. The Ospreys cut Long Island’s lead to 10-9 by opening the bottom of the ninth with a Tom Brady double and a John Mead home run. Two outs after a walk by Alex Baumann, Chris Adams walked and Parker Bates was hit by a pitch to load the bases. But reliever Brandon LaManna got Mike Sciorra looking at a called strike to pick up the save and end it.
Long Island had won the first game of the series, 5-2, on Thursday.
Garrett Heaton drove in three runs for Long Island. Jeff Towle added three hits (one a double) and two RBIs while Marc Wangenstein and Michael Veit knocked in two runs apiece.
Sciorra brought the Ospreys three RBIs and leadoff batter Chris Adams went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.
Michael Delio was credited with the win. He gave up two runs and six hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Long Island advances to the best-of-three finals against the defending champion Westhampton Aviators, who will host Game 1 on Monday.
