Ospreys just two wins away from championship
The North Fork Ospreys find themselves only two wins away from winning their third Hamptons Summer Baseball League title, after sweeping the Sag Harbor Whalers in the first two games of the best-of-three semifinal series.
Now, they set their sights on winning the league championship.
The regular-season champions host the South Shore Clippers at Cochran Park on Monday, July 28 at 7 p.m. and play at William Floyd High School in Game Two on Tuesday, July 29 at 4 p.m. Game Three, if needed, would be at Cochran on Wednesday, July 30 at 7 p.m.
Photos by Michael Lewis
The Ospreys entered the semifinals with a 1-12 postseason record since capturing the 2013 crown.
“We’re doing everything on all ends, pitching, fielding, hitting,” said first baseman Thomas Matuszewski, who scored the winning run in the first contest, an 11-inning thriller, and drove in a playoff-record seven runs in the second game.
Matuszewski added that if “we keep playing the way we’re playing, we should be perfectly fine and should just sail right through. But baseball is a weird sport. You never know what’s going to happen. We look forward to having a couple good games and playing our hardest.”
Manager Vinnie Morelli had similar sentiments. “It’s like they talk about in March Madness. All you’ve got to do is get to the dance, and you never know what could happen,” he said. “That’s a good team. They’re a team that, if you sleep on them, they’ll you make pay.”
The Ospreys’ victories could not have been more different. In Game One on Thursday, July 24, North Fork won a 6-5, 11-inning classic at home. In a game that needed two days to complete due to a thunderstorm, the Ospreys rolled to a 14-1 triumph at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor on Saturday, July 26.
After reaching base on an infield error, Matuszewski scored on catcher Nick Pratt’s (3-for-5) double in the bottom of the eleventh inning in Game One.
“It’s always great to have someone behind me,” Matuszewski said. “If I don’t come through, I know he’s always going to come through.”
Matuszewski won the batting title (.403), and Pratt was next (.398).
“Your best players have to be your best players to put yourself in a good situation,” Morelli said. “They are scorching hot, and they might burn your hand.
“Those are two guys that know they have a green light on any count to swing. I told Pratt specifically, ‘I don’t care what happens in this situation. If Thomas gets on, you are not bunting.’ … When the lights are the brightest, he’s at his best.”
Shortstop James Fagnant belted a two-run home run in the first and had three RBIs.
The second game, which started in 95-degree temperatures, took more than 24 hours to complete. On Friday, the Ospreys scored five runs in the top of the first.
The first three batters scored. Matuszewski’s had a run-scoring single and Pratt a sacrifice fly. Three other runs scored via errors.
“It’s hard for any team to score five runs at any point in the game,” Morelli said. “We were really just crazy.”
Then came the wind, which started an infield dust storm that lasted about 20 seconds. Minutes later, a thunderstorm forced officials to postpone the game until Saturday.
“We thought that it was a little inconvenient,” Matuszewski said. “We just kept going.”
“We were definitely lucky,” Morelli said. “We were wondering, is this going to turn into a 5-4 game, or are we just going to come out and roll these guys? They did that. That was really exciting to see.”
On Saturday, the Ospreys added three runs in the fourth, two in the eighth and four in the ninth. Fagnant contributed three hits and two RBIs and scored three times. Rocco Cimino added two hits and scored four times. Steven Kienzle had two hits and scored twice.
Besides his seven RBIs, Matuszewski had three hits and two doubles, scored twice and stole a base.
“Just jumping on the heater,” he said. “I’ve also got to give a shout out to the guys for getting on for me.”
Morelli praised his pitching staff, calling it “unreal” and “unbelievable.”
In the opener, starter Sebastian Perez (two unearned runs in four innings), Diego Martinez-Gomez (no hits and seven strikeouts in four) and winner Brian Espinal (one run in the final three) had their moments.
In the second game, starter AJ Mitchell threw only one scoreless inning because of the postponement. Winner Pete DeMaio (one hit and one run in five) and Matt Guido finished (one hit in three).
